Angel Wars
by Rigardo
Summary: Third Impact. Every plan fails and now all Shinji has to do is survive Eva Series and he'll have a life without the pressure of piloting the Evangelions. Or so it seems... ReixShinji.
1. Determination

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion.

**Chapter 01 **

**Determination**

"AT Field Full Power!" his scream was one full of determination.

This time he would be fighting for something he believed. No longer would he allow himself to go out into the battle field just to please the ones around him, he would go to protect them.

In a matter of seconds all of the surrounding area was swept by an invisible force that left nothing standing. This force halted the aggressors in place, it was so powerful not even their combined strength could surpass this divine wall.

However soon enough they gave up their advances and used the weapons that took down the Red Devil. With a swift movement one of them threw the Lance of Longinus, and the wall was no more.

Before the boy could react his nerves were assaulted by ferocious pain, although he knew it wasn't really his chest that was injured the pain did not go away and he found his movements become slow and shaky.

"It's... It's over..." like the purple titan his determination was broken and could no longer stand.

The white bringers of death were upon him, he knew what awaited him was a painful death and as a result of his death every other being in existence would perish.

"...d...gi..." he could hear a soft whisper, suddenly all of the world was meaningless, all the pain was gone, the entire battle was miles away, all he could hear was the whisper which grew stronger.

"..Do...U" he didn't know what it was or what it meant but it felt like it was the only thing that mattered at the moment so he closed his eyes and pushed the horror of his failure away from his mind, he just wanted to hear the soft and familiar voice.

"Don't Give Up!" as if powered by his will to listen it, it became powerful, no longer a whisper but now a scream urging him to get up. In a second he could understand more about the biological monstrosity than he could in the last few months.

"..."

"... Move!..." and with a word the titan was on its feet. However this did not slow the flying colossus as they landed around the impaled purple monster ready to deliver the next blow.

He knew he was outnumbered and he was also aware that conventional attacks would prove ineffective, they would just rise again, yet he was sure that he was not going to lose.

His thoughts were interrupted by the white bringer of death as it tried to grab him, but this did not disturb him he was now experiencing something unique, he could feel the soft wind caressing his entire body, he could sense every movement made around him... They were one now.

* * *

It was no secret that despite its size the purple titan was capable of moving at an insane speed, however never had it moved in such an elegant way, its movements were like a dance its entire body swayed as it delivered blows that could make a city tremble.

Before the white pigeons of doom could understand what hit them they were already falling at the hands of mankind's ultimate weapon. With a roar that could make the bravest of men turn into a coward the towering force of destruction pulled the Lance of Longinus from its own chest and threw it at its twitching enemy.

If these monstrosities were gifted with human logic they would retreat as soon as they saw the lance connect with their comrade, if not then they would have decided that it was best to run when the horned behemoth ripped their comrade's arms off, however they were not gifted with a mind capable of such thoughts and that was the reason why they still refused to retreat when the bloodied beast of destruction rose back to its feet.

It had ripped one of its assailants to shreds something not new to the behemoth of destruction, a similar event took place when Bardiel was foolish enough to defy the titan's might. However it still wished for blood; blood of those who dared crossed its path.

The purple titan had lost its name, if anything it should be called the Red Devil, but since that name was already taken another valid name for the horrific view was the bloodied titan.

With its core craving for the blood of its enemies the now red-ish behemoth didn't waste any time as it elegantly jumped high into the sky and landed on the chest of its next prey. In its now bloodied hand it held the lance that earlier had been used to pierce its chest.

The remaining bringers of doom didn't stand by watching as the raging titan took them out one by one, they launched a coordinated attack at the beast from all directions, however its AT Field could only be described as a death gate, one could only enter once it was their time, even the combined force of their own fields did nothing.

The angels of death even if not gifted with an intelligent mind knew that even such a gate could be opened all they needed was the key: The Lance of Longinus.

But as if by fate all of the spears were beyond the gate and all they could do was watch as their comrade was being deconstructed by the death machine.

Before the white monster could react its wish for the Lance was realized as its head was speared. The bloodbath was over and the blood-covered monster walked calmly to its next target moving its gate of death.

The remaining five ran for the tools that would grant them victory as the horned monster repeated the deconstruction process with their fallen comrade. It was a matter of seconds before they could hold the key to victory against the enraged monstrosity, however fate once again didn't smile at them.

The ground shook from their clumsy dash and the berserker was not happy seeing them reach for his toys, he would no longer take them out one by one. Using its sheer brute force the horned behemoth sent two of his enemie's heads against the ground in hopes of smashing them immediately, his wish was granted when he saw the ground bathed in blood.

The remaining three paid no attention to the carnage happening behind them the only thing that mattered was the Lance.

Once again the bloodied monster smashed two enemies into the ground effectively taking them out of the race. Now there was only one doll to smash, and this doll had defied the titan further as it now wielded the Lance of Longinus.

Certain of its victory the last angel of death tossed the Lance at its enemy, the AT Field bent before it disappeared and the spear connected with a behemoth... Only not the desired target, the spear was definitely fast, but the horned monster was faster as in less than a second it swayed its body out of the spears way putting the carcass of his enemy in the way which stopped the weapon.

Now that the spear was back on its rightful owner's hands the horned beast used it to impale his last guest.

With slow strides it dragged the bodies into a pile and resumed its actions taking them apart.

One could assume this was a precaution to make sure they wouldn't recover, but to anyone who looked it was clear that the death machine was just doing as it pleased...

* * *

The behemoth suddenly came to a stop.

He opened his eyes, he was inside his entry plug. After a quick glance at the river of blood running outside he closed his eyes. They were no longer one...

He opened his eyes and found himself looking at the not so unfamiliar ceiling. _Nerv Hospital_ he tought.

After a while it all came back to him, the JSSDF attacked and then came the Mass Production Evangelions, which he destroyed.

After a while where he reviewed all that had happened his body jolted up. _Where are they! Misato, Rei, Asuka!_ When he sat up he realized he wasn't alone, sub-commander Fuyutsuki was looking at him with a stoic face.

"Ikari, I'm glad to see you're feeling better." his voice was calm like nothing had happened.

"Where are-" he couldn't talk. When he tried to ask for them his chest started to hurt, the phantom pain he had felt many times after his battles.

"Don't try to talk, your chest is still pretty injured from the battle, your synch ratio was nearly at 100 so your chest has some mild nerve damage nothing too serious though." he was trying to be reassuring but was failing miserable, Shinji wasn't worried about himself, all he wanted was to know how the others were doing.

The sub-commander continued "You must be wondering what I'm doing here and what happened, well allow me to explain." with that he started to tell him all that had happened.

The JSSDF ordered by SEELE had attacked Nerv that lost 89% of its operatives. He had successfully opened a secure line with the Japanese Government and after things were explained and negotiated the JSSDF was ordered to cease fire and retreat. His father had taken Rei to Lilith to complete his plan but was wounded by Ritsuko Akagi.

Currently Gendo Ikari was in a secret facility that worked as a max security prison for him and the members of SEELE.

"But wh-" again he found himself incapable of finishing his own words.

"You should rest Ikari in a few days you should be fine." he was about to leave but was stopped by Shinji that grabbed his jacket, the young man was determined to get some answers even if it took him a whole week to ask the question he was so desperate to make.

"Rei... As... Mis..." was all he could say but the older man understood what he wanted.

"Pilot Ayanami is waiting outside your room, as for Pilot Soryu she's in intensive care her injuries are life threatening but she's a fighter I'm confident she'll recover and will back to her hold self before you know it, as for Major Katsuragi she is already working with the rest of Nerv to clean this mess."

As if that was all he was waiting for Shinji let go of the sub-commander and just fell backwards and let sleep claim him.

Fuyutsuki stared at the boy admiring him for a while before he left to continue his work.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Well this was fun to write I started with something I thought would be the easiest for me... At first I was thinking of writing something post Third Impact but then I got all depressed and decided that I was going to prevent third impact, and this was what came out, I still felt pretty depressed during the last part but oh well now that I saved the world and made everyone live we should have some happier times coming. Though I'm not declaring the Eva's dead yet.

Now this is my first fic so I would appreciate some advices and stuff, feel free to correct my English since I'm sure I made some typos along the way.  
Also many thanks to the awesome OST of Rebuild Of Evangelion 2.0 that never fails to inspire me!

Now then.

**Omake**

The MP Eva's watched as Unit 01 appeared ready for battle.

It was an even battle even though Unit 01 was outnumbered its power was still impressive.

The battle continued for a while before the purple titan started to fail, it's movements became slow and the damage caused by the Eva series was taking its tool on the pilot.

Gendo was looking at the beating Unit 01 was taking so he made the call. Something had to be done!

"Tell the pilot to use the secret Code!"

The bridge bunnies just looked at their commander with shocked faces and gulped, no one wanted to argue with him but someone had to.

"But sir the sheer destructive power of tha-" Shigeru had been the one to try and persuade the commander but his argument was shot before he could say anything else.

"I said do it!"

"Are you sure about this Ikari?" sub-commander Fuyutsuki didn't dare go against Gendo but he had to at least see if there was some way to stop it.

However his hopes were killed when Gendo just shot him one of his trademark pedo-smiles.

"Shinji-kun use the secret code." Mayab Ibuki informed the pilot of the purple monster.

"A-Alright! Reverse mode, Secret Code: Love!"

After those words were spoken the purple behemoth started twitching and squirming before it transformed into an horrendous beast and it started its attack.

"I love you, you love me..."

"Ah sir it's just horrible!" Maya shouted while the MP Eva's just exploded making use of their self destruction function.

Towering above the remains of his opponents was the purple dinosaur of death.

And that was how Third Impact was prevented at the cost of releasing an equal evil upon the world.


	2. Events and Fate

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion

**Chapter 02**

**Events and Fate**

**

* * *

**

Ikari Gendo

"Ritsuko Aka-" with a loud noise his voice was silenced, not allowed to finish his words he felt his chest scream in pain, when he realized what had happened he was already on his knees.

With one one look at his own blood Gendo let the growing darkness claim him.

xxx

_My body feels light... No more pain..._ Those were the first thoughts on his head as he slowly opened his eyes, he was surprised with the view, he was in a white room, so white his eyes took a while to get used to the lighting of the strange room.

In front of him was a big mirror, when he looked into said mirror confusion spread through his face. He was wearing dark slacks and a blue T-shirt with the words "**World's Greatest Father**" written on it, his orange tinted glasses replaced by regular glasses.

Gendo just stood there contemplating the odd image for a while, when he blinked he found himself standing in the middle of a park. He looked around and saw children running around and smiling, he took his time to examine the place, there were cherry trees blooming all over the place, it was a beautiful view, but the commander could only think about how weird it was.

_Third... Impact? _He wondered looking at the happy people surrounding him.

Suddenly he felt something pulling his t-shirt down, when he turned around he found himself looking at a crying small boy.

"Daddy... It hurts..." when he further examined the boy he recognized him, it was the pilot of Unit 01 only much younger. The boy had a scraped knee and was turning to him for help.

Still overwhelmed by the situation he just stood there looking at the boy.

"Geez don't just stand there." a young woman reached for the small boy and picked him up making funny faces trying to cheer him up "Mommy is here it's alright."

If he was surprised before he was now shocked, the woman with brown hair had a bright smile in her beautiful face and was wearing a white summer dress. But that was impossible, this entire situation was ridiculously impossible.

"Y.. Yui...?"

"Hmm? What's the matter honey?" she was looking at him in confusion.

No matter how impossible this situation was Gendo wanted to embrace it, however he blinked a second time and everything was gone. He was now standing in front of a house, it wasn't small but it wasn't big either, it was a traditional Japanese house with a small garden filled with flowers.

When he looked at the front door he saw his Yui on her knees crying and Shinji looking at him with nothing but hatred burning in his eyes.

"How Dare You Show Your Face Here After All You've Done?" his words were powerful, unlike the Shinji Ikari he knew this one was threatening. His presence alone demanded respect.

"What? I don-"

"Gendo please. I thought we agreed... I don't want to see you again..." the fragile woman still had tears running down her face. Her words were gentle compared to the ones of the young boy, yet they still managed to hurt him more.

The young boy knelt down and embraced his mother in a gentle hug before he glared at his father.

"Why are you saying that Yui? Whatever happened I can fix it..." Gendo Ikari, the supreme commander of Nerv, the ice commander was actually panicking, his voice usually cold and filled with authority was now shaking.

He wanted to understand what was happening, yet he was denied again. Once he blinked again he found himself in the same white room he had been in earlier.

When he looked into the mirror this time he saw himself wearing jeans and a white sleeveless shirt with the words "**Failure**" written all over it.

"What The Hell Is Happening!" the commander finally snapped, he dropped to his knees and shut his eyes while shaking is head.

* * *

**Fuyutsuki Khozou**

"How is he doing? He's squirming a lot..." the sub-commander talked with a cold voice that would make Gendo proud.

"He's fine sir, seems to be having a nightmare, that's all." the doctor looked at her former lover "The injury to his lung is almost fully healed he should regain consciousness soon enough."

"So even you have nightmares Ikari..." the new commander mumbled while turning around and heading for the exit.

He motioned the blond to follow him and she did.

After a quiet walk through the corridors of Damoncles they reached a reinforced door, the commander punched in the code and the door opened slowly.

Once inside he finally addressed her " How is the rebuild coming along?" the blond looked at the notepad she was holding, after a while of browsing through it she found what she was looking for.

" So far so good, phase one is nearly at 100 % the rest is still being handled however we should have it ready in time."

"See to it that you do." they fell silent again as they watched the engineers work. A beeping noise coming from the new commander's pocket got their attention as he looked at it he nodded and looked at the doctor "I have to go, they finished the treatment on pilot Ikari."

"Uh." she acknowledged him and continued examining the workers and engineers.

xxx

Commander Fuyutsuki walked past several titanium doors, reinforced gates and armed guards as he headed to the exit. Damoncles was the safest place on earth now that Nerv was... Less intact. This was selected as the new HQ for Nerv personal until they finished cleaning up the mess at the Geofront.

He passed the last gate and found a VTOL awaiting him, he boarded the aircraft and waited for them to reach their destination.

_It's incredible the mess you created Ikari... _he thought while looking at Tokyo 3.

xxx

"Sir! The pilot still hasn't reached the cages." Lt. Ibuki reported with panic in her usually gentle voice "Unit 02 was silenced by the Mass Production Eva Series... Sir, what should we do?"

"There's nothing we can do about that, not until pilot Ikari reaches Unit 01." his blood was boiling, where the hell was Major Katsuragi and pilot Ikari? "Lt. Ibuki, I need a secure line to the Japanese government, one that those bastards of the JSSDF can't cut!"

"Sir that's nearly impossible! Their jamming devices are cutting off all wave frequencies, and we have little to no energy, connection through the Magi before our generator fails is-"

"Nearly impossible is not impossible! Use the Magi, we aren't going to need it if we're all dead!" the JSSDF wasn't even stopping to ask questions, anything that moved was being eliminated.

"Sir! Unit 01 is moving!" Lt. Aoba reported.

_Finally! _Ikari was outnumbered but he was the only thing that could stop the Eva series, now all he had to worry about was stopping the JSSDF.

"Ibuki how much longer?"

"It's hard to tell sir, they are aware of what we're trying to do and they don't seem to want to let me through."

"You're a genius figure it out!" she was their last hope, he needed her to do her best.

"Yes sir!"

****

Alert Alert Alert

Nerv bridge was bathed in red light as several Alert signals appeared on the screens of every computer.

"Sir Unit 01 Has Been Impaled By The Lance of Longinus!" Lt. Hyuga yelled from his seat.

_Dammit! He hardly lasted a 10 minutes! _His mind was racing, still there was nothing he could do in this situation.

For a moment the bridge fell silent, even Maya dropped her laptop and was staring at the purple titan.

"W-wait! Unit 01 is moving... S-Synch ratio at 190..." Lt Hyuga was looking confused at the several computers in front of him.

"Berserk?"

"No.. Something else, we can no longer monitor the interior of the Entry Plug, but we can still detect the brain waves of pilot Ikari.,, What on earth is happening in there?"

"It doesn't matter! As long as he can fight... As long as he can fight we have a chance! Lt Ibuki how is it going?" Fuyutsuki felt his heart beating ferociously, fate seemed to be smiling at them.

"Got it! I'll put it on the main screen."

_Fate really is smiling at us. _

xxx

"Commander.. Commander we're here."

His eyes opened and he realized he had fallen asleep, he didn't want to remember that day, but Pilot Ikari would want to know what happened...

* * *

**Katsuragi Misato**

…

"We'll do the rest when you get back..." she had not held back she had kissed him with passion, and he was stunned, this was not the effect she wished for but it would have to do.

Seduction was capable of having strong motivational effects, once everything else failed she knew soldiers reacted to that the best, however Shinji was not a soldier.

She tried to push Shinji but she found that she no longer had strength to do so, and the boy was no longer stunned, her plan had failed, if he stayed with her he would die.

Unexpectedly he hugged her. He hugged her so tightly she forgot about her wounds, she forgot about the revenge against the Angels, she forgot about her father, her mind relaxed completely, she couldn't even remember about why she was there, all she knew was that she wanted to be there, with him.

She was being selfish on her last moments. Anyone that knew Major Katsuragi knew she was a selfish person, but when it came to her duty she never slacked off. U_nless of course such duty implied massive amounts of paperwork... _she thought.

But just this once she wanted to be selfish and have him hold her close to him.

There was only silence, no sound could break through to them, it was a comfortable silence, she wanted it to last forever... However she knew it wouldn't and Shinji was the one who shattered the wall of silence they had created.

"I'll hold you to that... I'll protect you..." Shinji spoke like he had never before, his words filled with... Determination.

She could see it in his eyes, something changed.

"Of course! I never break a promise..." her words were weak, Misato could feel the life slowly being drained out of her but she found strength to flash him one last smile.

With tears in his eyes the young pilot of Unit 01 ran for the elevator that would take him to his weapon, the weapon he would use to protect everyone.

Misato watched him leave, she had completed her mission, now it was all up to him...

Her vision was blurry she couldn't tell anything apart anymore, however before she was claimed by darkness she saw something move.

_I guess this is it, one way or the other... _those were the last thoughts of the major before she lost consciousness.

xxx

(All teams change of orders! You are to cease fire and retreat. I repeat: cease fire and retreat!)

The leader of team 7 was pointing his gun at the woman passed out in front of him when he received the order to cease fire.

"Sir, what now?"

The leader of team 7 ignored his comrade and turned to his radio "This is team 7, should we do anything about the injured? Over."

(Bring anyone you see still alive with you. Over.)

"Copy that... You sure got lucky lady."

xxx

Misato woke up looking at a white ceiling, she was really confused. This was heaven? If so she was seriously disappointed. Where were the pools of beer and the... huh... Well she hadn't really put much thought into going to heaven so all she could think about was beer.

"How are you feeling Major?" the calm voice of sub-commander Fuyutsuki reached her ears.

"Sir... How?"

"You're at Nerv hospital, you were shot, do you remember?"

"Yes, but, how am I... how are _we_ alive? I saw the JSSDF coming before I blacked out."

"We were capable of contacting the government and talk our way out of that situation. They helped evacuate and took care of the injured. Kind of their way of saying sorry."

"I see..." _Sorry? Oh now she was pissed!_

"Though that's not why I'm here, I'm here to inform you of your new assignment."

"What about the children? Are they okay?" in any other kind of situation she would've made a big fuss over the new assignment, after all she had just been shot and almost killed.

The new commander seemed to discuss internally if he should tell her, but when he saw the look in the eyes of the young major he made his decision.

"Pilot Ayanami is unharmed, however pilot Soryu is in intensive care she sustained serious injuries, as for pilot Ikari he is relatively unharmed, just some mild nerve damage."

He waited a moment to let her digest the information and continued " I realize you have just been through something hard, however I would like you to focus on the business at hand. The mission we're talking about is of the utmost importance, it concerns SEELE."

"I see... SEELE..."

"I'd like to have your help Major."

"Understood."

"You'll be released in two days, we'll have everything ready for you until then."

* * *

**Akagi Ritsuko**

He was going to shoot, she had been betrayed by her mother, if she wanted to stop him it was all up to her... Also, she wanted revenge... That was the reason why she pulled the trigger without thinking twice.

"Rei..." Ritsuko looked at the young blue haired girl standing naked in front of Lilith.

"T..." she hesitated "Thank you..."

This had been the first time Ritsuko had seen Rei display any kind of emotions, the girl was thanking in such a way she could feel the girl's gratitude in every word she spoke.

Ritsuko never really liked the blue haired girl but when she heard those words she smiled. She offered her hand to the girl and she took it.

They slowly walked away from Terminal Dogma.

xxx

"Doctor Akagi!" the cheery voice of the young computer tech reached he ears. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"Maya please send our medical team to retrieve commander Ikari from Terminal-" her eyes were browsing the bridge and when they stopped on the main screen she could see a bloodied behemoth "Is that... Unit 01? What happened?"

"Hmm? Oh I'm glad to see you in one piece doctor Akagi." the older man who looked drained was drinking a cup of tea with Lt. Hyuga and Lt. Aoba "Why don't you come and join us? A cup of tea after what we just went through is rather relaxing I must say..."

At that moment there didn't seem to be a sub-commander or any other kind of ranking, the three man were just celebrating the fact that they were alive and well.

"I'll pass... Maya send that team to Terminal Dogma." the young brown haired girl nodded and went back to her laptop.

The blond doctor remembered the blue haired girl, when she looked in her direction she saw her gazing at the bloodied Unit 01.

"Ikari... kun..." _It's best to leave her alone for now... _she thought.

"What happened with the attack?" she paused to take another look at Unit 01 and what seemed to be the Eva series "The JSSDF, I mean"

"Your lovely assistant was kind enough to help us communicate with the government, and after a few negotiations they agreed to order the cease fire, now their main objectives are SEELE, and Gendo Ikari." the mention of his name made the doctor wince.

"Yeah, Maya was unbelievable!" Lt. Aoba praised the computer tech.

"Oh... I-it was nothing..." the shy girl was blushing furiously at the compliment.

"Good job Maya." the blond praised her student as well. "What about Misato? And-"

"Relax Ritsuko. The JSSDF already volunteered to retrieve the pilots and Unit 01. As for major Katsuragi she was wounded but has already been retrieved and is receiving treatment as we speak." Fuyutsuki reassured her.

"Unit 01? What about Unit 02?" the bridge fell silent and she realized what that meant. "Oh..."

"Rei-chan, are you okay?" Maya was concerned for the girl who was only wearing a lab coat, that had been provided earlier by Ritsuko.

"I am unharmed..." she answered without taking her eyes from Unit 01.

Maya seemed a little uncomfortable with the answer of the younger girl and decided it was best to leave her be. "Sempai, I already got our medical team to go there... They had some problem passing through the JSSDF but they should be arrive soon enough."

"I see... good job Maya." finally Ritsuko allowed herself to rest as she sat down on one of the chairs.

"Thank you sempai!" Maya beamed at the blond.

"What a day..."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Too confusing? I hope not... I wanted to explain how we get to the point where everyone is alive. I've read several fics where they just skip it and I decided to make something different so it wouldn't feel like I just snapped my fingers and everything turned out okay. Although I understand why they didn't go through it all in other fics I mean it was really annoying. Still I found a way to entertain myself, hehe I made it so all the events were seen through the eyes of different characters. I'm aware there might be some plot holes but, hell I was tired and it wasn't the easiest thing to write about...

So me be in need of some advice and such! So don't forget to leave a review on your way out.

Once again many thanks to the OST of Rebuild of Evangelion, inspiration in CD form.

Now I'd really like to ask for some opinions, which pairing would you like to see in this fic? I won't start writing about that anytime soon but I'd like to have an idea of what you, the readers, want to see here.

So either leave a review or if you're too lazy just go to my profile and vote in the pool. Why haven't I decided on the pairing myself? Because I'd rather know what people want out of this fic instead of just going "SHINJI X REI FTW DUUDE!"

In case your dropping a review with your opinion here are the pairings I want to work with:

ShinjixRei

ShinjixAsuka

ShinjixMisato

ShinjixMaya

ShinjixHikari

Take your time like, I said I won't be writing about romance any time soon.


	3. Guilt

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion

**Chapter 03**

**Guilt**

His hands were weapons, his entire body was a weapon, more powerful than a thousand armies. His mind was stripped from all the barriers he had created in order to protect himself, his will was gone replaced by his instincts that ordered him to rip his enemies apart... And that whole situation felt... Familiar. Next to him she stood with a proud look adorning her beautiful face...

Light, pure white light, that was all there was for a moment before his eyes adjusted.

Shinji forced his body into a sitting position and scanned his surroundings. He was in a standard hospital room, white walls, white... Everything! Next to his bed was a machine monitoring his heart and a chair that looked kind of out of place. He ignored it and gazed at the small window that was providing light to the small room. "Mother..."

The door opened and a lavender haired woman entered his room, she was distracted fighting with the small bag she was carrying and didn't notice he was awake.

"Damn, where did I put-" she finally had looked up and their eyes locked.

This had been the first time Shinji had been glad to have sustained nerve damage as a result of battle, because if he hadn't he was sure his chest would be hurting from the impact that resulted from the woman jumping on top of him.

"Shinji..." the usually boisterous woman was holding him has if he was made of glass and even more surprising she was doing so quietly.

"M-Misato-san, I'm glad you're okay." he had no experience in receiving affection, actually the only person who ever showed affection to him since he got to this city was Misato herself so he let her hug him and remained quiet.

The major started sobbing while tightening the hug, so much that Shinji was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with her.

"Hmm... Misato-san?"

"I should be the one saying that..." Misato finally pulled back and he saw her face drenched in tears.

"I'm sorry..." his self defense mechanism triggered, if there was a situation he didn't know how to face apologizing was how he dealt with it.

Shinji had been criticized several times for this behavior, but after so many years perfecting it, running away was nearly a form of art for him.

"Don't be... If there's someone who should be sorry it's me, I forced you into battle countless times, I... I..." again Misato hugged him with even more strength.

"It's okay..." reassurance; definitely something he would never master.

It had been a rather emotional encounter, but after the initial outburst Misato had returned to her old self teasing him implying he was adoring the hug he received from her. In his mind all was right.

xxx

In her mind all was wrong.

She had played the events of that day in her head over and over again, and her mind always ended up stuck on that moment. _We'll do the rest when you get back... _her charge had not mentioned that incident nor had he shown any kind of strange behavior towards her, when she teased him earlier he had blushed like always and ignored her comments... Still, she wondered if her "final" words had caused damage.

"Misato-san... I would like to visit Asuka..." Shinji's voice was filled with pain, Misato had learned what happened to the pilot of Unit 02 from Lt. Hyuga after she was discharged from the hospital. There was no doubt that Shinji felt guilt, guilt for not being there earlier, guilt for not saving her.

She nodded and they quietly headed for Nerv's intensive care unit.

xxx

In the end they didn't actually visit Asuka, due to the severity of her injuries she had been put on a sterilized room and was completely isolated so they weren't allowed anywhere near the girl.

Misato saw no advantage in staying there, Shinji had a pained look on his face. 'T_his is not doing him any good.'_ She thought deciding that it would be best for him if they left.

"Shinji-kun... I think we should leave... We can't do anything by staying here, and you should rest too."

Shinji examined Misato as if pondering her arguments and after a while he nodded.

xxx

The drive back had been as usual, almost as if nothing had happened, Misato teased, played and nearly ran over a dog.

They arrived at the apartment a while later and in a lot of ways that night seemed like the first time Shinji had entered Misato's apartment, he had hesitated at the entrance and had only entered when Misato reminded him that it was his home.

Misato thought of having a conversation with her charge about how good he did and how proud she was of him, however that idea was postponed for later after she saw him looking dejected and pained at the intensive care unit... For now it was best to let him adjust, let him feel normal, let him play with his friends, she had no idea how he would react if she told him she was proud of him when Asuka was in the hospital he might actually feel worse... So she decided to act as normal as possible.

Grabbing a beer can she sat down in front of the TV and waited while Shinji prepared the meal.

xxx

"Shinji-kun how much longer...?"

"It's almost done."

Like before Shinji cooked and Misato sat at the table nursing a can of beer. Although the major had a cheery attitude he could see she wasn't herself, in a behavior that much resembled his own she had refused to make eye contact several times after they departed from the hospital. At first he thought it was nothing but after running the facts over and over again in his head he realized what had happened.

_She resents me, she resents me for being weak when I was needed... Because I could have helped Asuka... Because she didn't need to get shot... she hates me so much she can't even look at me..._

He was so focused on his thoughts that he didn't even notice Misato staring at him with a worried expression haunting her usually bright face.

Eventually Shinji finished preparing dinner, he had made Misato's favorite food, he didn't know why he remembered to prepare that but he guessed subconsciously he was trying to make her hate him less... Hate less was right, he was sure things weren't going to return to normal just because he prepared her favorite food just the way she liked it...

When Shinji finished serving the food he was rewarded with a drooling Misato that spent the rest of the meal complimenting his culinary skills.

Besides Misato's praises they ate in relative quiet.

Once they finished Misato said she was going to take a bath and Shinji now alone found his eyes drifting to the room of the German girl. "Asuka..." he shook his head and tried to rid himself of those thoughts but to no avail, his subconscious was determined to make him feel guilty, no matter how deep he buried those thoughts they'd just surface again...

He finished washing the dishes and decided to go to bed, without warning Misato he headed for his room and dropped on his futon.

xxx

Misato came out of her bath and found the kitchen empty. '_Shinji-kun...' _

With a quick glance at the door of "Shinji's lovely Suite" she reached for the fridge and opened it "Crap... Out of beer..." with a tired expression the major silently headed for her room.

Her room... It was as littered as always, beer cans, plastic bags... Any other person would probably run out of the room after one look, yet she liked this, not because she liked dirt, but because it gave her a sense of freedom.

Lying on her bed the major looked at the dark ceiling and let her mind wander.

Shinji had been his usual self and she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, even though he fought to maintain his mask she had seen it twice... The unmistakable look of guilt on his face.

"_We'll do the rest when you get back..."_ She twitched. Where did that come from? This hadn't been the first time she found herself think about it but this had most certainly been the first time it had popped to her mind like that. Whatever the reason was she remembered there was also that problem, even if it seemed like a good idea at the moment now she found herself wonder what effect that simple sentence had on him, on her, on their relation...

_'Shinji-kun..'_

She turned over again and again on her futon and after a lot of thinking she decided it was best if she closed her eyes and let herself fall asleep. Those were problems for tomorrow...

xxx

Shinji was also experiencing a restless night, however unlike Misato his mind focused on his feelings of guilt, and fear. He was afraid, what if Misato kicked him out? Not only had he caused her to suffer both physically and psychologically but he had also outlived his usefulness as an Eva pilot, there was no longer a reason for her to keep him around, to provide for him, to put up with his useless existence...

If this had happened several months ago he probably would not have cared, however throughout the time he spent with Misato and Asuka he came to see this environment as home unlike the previous place that he saw as a relationship of benefits. This place made him feel like he belonged here, like a real family, and he didn't want to lose that...

He didn't want to face it, he didn't want to face Asuka, he didn't want to face Misato, Shinji was being tormented by his fears so he turned to the thing that allowed him to forget about his fears, the thing that allowed him to forget about the world itself.

He just pressed the play button on his SDAT player and waited for the sleep to take him while listening to Zaika ni Keiyaku no Chi wo, a new song Kensuke had borrow him.

_At least... At least in my dreams it'll be fine..._

xxx

"This is... Troublesome..."

"Indeed"

Two figures stood on the rooftop of the military complex that was the Damoncles, the older of the two stared blankly at the sea.

"Are you sure about your findings? I was told the hard drives was pretty banged up..."

"Yes sir, we used the MAGI to thoroughly examine every last bit of data. Even after the damage sustained during the raid we were capable of retrieving the data."

"Damn it."

With a sigh Commander Fuyutsuki continued on looking at the ocean.

"With this kind of information we'll have to contact the UN and our government, deals will have to be made... special permissions... the only good thing out of this will be I can negotiate the affairs Ikari neglected."

"I'll schedule a meeting sir."

xxx

Shinji walked the still deserted streets of Tokyo 3, although he was unsure if they were deserted because it was early or because of the latest events. If Tokyo 3 had a bad reputation when it came to safety before, now it was much worse, not only was it seen as monster target it was now also seen as a war zone between humans as well.

He had set his alarm clock to wake him up much earlier than his guardian's, although she never really woke up earlier than him he wanted to have some time to himself and this way he could have both things, time and solitude.

Roaming through town without any particular destination Shinji found himself at the mall, lost in his thoughts he stared blankly at the several movie posters.

"Oh... Ikari-kun." a sweet female voice called out to him, if he were to put it in the words of his good friend Kensuke Aida the voice was so sweet he could have a 'sugar OD'.

When he turned his gaze towards the direction from which the voice came he took a while to recognize the girl who was waving at him.

"Class... Rep..." the one who had disturbed his solitude was her... Asuka's best friend...

He didn't want to talk about that right now, he wasn't ready to deal with that. So he pretended he hadn't heard a thing and walked away looking at his wrist as if a watch was there pretending to be late for an appointment.

When he finally felt safe he looked at an actual watch and realized it would be best if he headed for school... He had a feeling he'd have to deal with a lot today specially from his classmates...

And wrong he was not. Once he entered the classroom silence ruled, you could even hear the noise of the cicadas outside.

He pretended he didn't notice it and kept his head low, trying to blend in like air even though he knew there was no way that would happen. He reached his seat and kept looking down as if the table was suddenly extremely interesting.

As if the shock finally left their bodies the classroom exploded and in a matter of seconds he was being bombarded by the now 'shock-free' students.

"What happened?"

"Is it true you killed, like, fifty Angels?"

"You were attacked by the army right?"

"What about the red Devil what happened to her?" at this Shinji winced and Hikari seemed to understand why he had ran earlier from her.

Those were examples of the massive bombardment of questions he was suffering. He looked around and only three persons were sitting in their seats; Ayanami, Kensuke, Hikari. From the three two were clearly staring at him, both Kensuke and Hikari seemed like they wanted to ask their own questions but those questions were much to private for them to join the crazy flock that was suffocating Shinji.

Luck smiled at him as the teacher entered the room and Hikari brought order back to the classroom.

Xxx

Lunchtime arrived and Shinji didn't give anyone a chance, before the bell even rang he was already heading for the door and in a few minutes he had reached his destination, the rooftop. Although this place was popular at lunchtime the school was pretty empty so he thought this was the best place to be.

He didn't have any food for the simple reason that he had left in a hurry, so he just stood there looking at the sky listening to his SDAT player.

Shinji had shut himself from the outside world paying attention only to his SDAT player and because of that he failed to notice a person approaching him. With his mind moving between feelings of guilt and feelings of fear his body made sure he also listened to it.

A huge growl came from his stomach and thinking he was alone he ignored it and maintained his eyes closed, until a voice, the same voice made itself once again known, filled with sweetness it talked to him.

"You know, you should eat something..."

_'Hikari.'_

"Ho-Hooraki-san..." so much for running away she was between him and the door and he didn't have a good enough excuse that would grant him a ticket out of school.

"Here."

Shinji looked up and saw her holding a bento box out to him. When he saw her sending him a smile he reluctantly grabbed the bento box. "T-Thank you..."

He had expected her to bombard him with questions like the rest of his classmates but instead she just sat down next to him and started eating her lunch in silence. He didn't quite understand but decided that it wasn't a bad thing at all.

They ate in silence, she glanced at him from time to time with a friendly smile but didn't open her mouth.

Then when she did talk to him she hadn't asked him what he was expecting.

"Ikari... How are you feeling? You... You just seem so sad..." this was a first, she was actually asking about his well being.

"..." He was surprised definitely not the question he was expecting. "I'm alright..." he lied.

"I see." a few more minutes went by while they ate silently and then she talked again "You don't look alright though."

Shinji didn't want to talk about his personal state of mind. Hikari, someone he had barely talked to throughout the months he had been staying here, she was Asuka's best friend and he had always had a good opinion about her, she seemed like a responsible, sweet and caring girl... Right now he didn't want sweet and caring people around him.

"I am, don't worry about me..." with that he rose to his feet thanked her for the meal and headed off not giving the class rep time to come up with something to say.

xxx

School ended and Shinji didn't budge from his seat. _What should I do now... _If he were to go home he'd have to face Misato, however if he stood around he'd have to put up with the incessant questions from his classmates.

When he scanned the room to see if anyone was waiting for him he saw bright crimson eyes staring directly at him. For a moment they just stared at each other.

Rei and Shinji never talked much but somehow the silence between them was like a conversation, a conversation that could go on forever and neither would get tired or bored of it, Rei was a presence he always found calming and interesting, so the quiet stare between them that could be called weird by others was actually pleasant to them.

However Shinji soon broke contact and started to leave. He didn't want to feel 'pleasant' his mind was too much in an uproar and even though he wouldn't actually say any of it to Rei she would understand because they could nearly read each others minds...

xxx

_'Might as well get this over with...' _With that thought fueling him her entered the small apartment and like he had predicted Misato awaited him.

"How was school Shinji-kun?" her voice carried a bittersweet tone and he knew why, she was going to break the news to him, he would have to leave, but being Misato who she was she would try to do it in the sweetest ways possible, which made things a million times worse for him.

"It was alright..."

"Shinji-kun, there's something we need to ta-" she didn't even have time to finish her sentence the pilot of Unit 01 turned his back on her and headed for his room, not two minutes had passed and he was walking towards the door with his belongings. "Wha- What are you doing!"

"Don't worry I'll be leaving now..."

_'WAIT, WHAT!'_

"WAIT, WHAT!" the filter that maintained her thoughts in her mind from slipping out her mouth seemed to have broken and she yelled the first thing that came to her head.

Shinji was taken aback, why was his guardian freaking out that way?

"Shinji-kun was it... Was it something I did? Why... Is this because of Asuka?"

"I don't understand, weren't you going to tell me that since I no longer worked for Nerv I'd have to lea-"

"NO!"

This surprised him further but his mind still wouldn't allow him to stay he could see how much his presence bothered her.

"Either ways I can't stay... I can see it in your face Misato-san, whenever I look at you your eyes avoid mine, I understand why... It was all my fault.. I-If I hadn't been so weak, Asuka Wouldn't You Wouldn't..." Shinji was now crying and he had lost control over the volume of his voice, this was why he didn't want to face Misato all of his guilt surfaced and there was nothing he could do to stop it anymore, "I-I-I... But I Don't Want To-"

Silence...

Misato had hugged the pilot and she was squeezing him as hard as she could.

"No... You dummy." he could hear it in Misato's voice, now even the major was crying. Shinji was even more confused now, he had no idea what had happened or how it came to this, "I don't want you to leave Shinji-kun.. I was just trying to help and look what I did..."

He could feel her warmness of her body spreading to him and her lavender scent was filling his lungs... This had been the second time in two days Misato had had an emotional outburst over him...

"I just wanted to tell you that you did something good... But I knew you were affected by what happened with Asuka and if I said that you'd just..." silence once more took over the small apartment, he was processing the information.

And her next words even if it was just a lie she made up to make him feel better, even if it was something people said to help each other, when it came from Misatos lips in her sweet voice he just felt his body fill with tremendous happiness.

"_It wasn't your fault." _

Shinji immediately returned the hug, he was stupid to think Misato would kick him out, he was now sure she had been concerned over him instead of secretly scorning him, and he didn't want to lose that, he didn't want to lose the care she had always showed him...

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Hey hey! Here is chapter three, now I took more time with this because of one simple reason, the beach is awesome!

Haha, anyways in this chapter I wanted to expose the bond I always thought was there during the series, Misato was like a mother to Shinji and even though she had a weird way to show it she cared for him more than anyone else so I tried to emphasize that here. I also tried to show how Shinji would feel after what happened to Asuka and Misato because of his actions, so to do this I tried to give everyone a minor role in this chapter from Kensuke holding back his questions about giant robots and otakuness to Hikari just being nice to him and instead of asking a question she knew would upset him more gave him one of her trademark lunchies.

This chapter didn't flow quite as well as I wanted it to but I think it's acceptable. Now you tell me what you think by leaving a much wanted review on your way out!

I'd like to thank Beethoven for his master piece Ode To Joy and Zaika ni Keiyaku no Chi wo for helping me write this chapter.

Now I'd also like to thank those who shared theirs thoughts about the pairing, so if it isn't too much to ask I would appreciate more opinions.


	4. Connection Beyond Words

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion.

**Chapter 04**

**Connection Beyond Words**

"_It's not your fault"_

After the major's voice reached Shinji he returned her hug relieved, having an unfamiliar sense of happiness run through his body.

For several minutes they just stood there embracing each other, if this was any other day the young pilot would have blushed furiously but at that moment, even if it would cost him days and days of non-stop teasing, he just wanted to feel the warmness provided by Misato, such a feeling could only be described as happiness.

He knew they would eventually have to let go but not right now, Shinji wanted to stay like that even if just for a few more minutes, and Misato didn't seem to think different.

xxx

With a rough sound the door that had the words 'D. Conference Room 007' imprinted on it opened and the figure of commander Fuyutsuki exited the room.

"Well, one thing is for sure, even if this place got the nickname of 'Impenetrable Fortress' it will never be commended for its conference rooms..." the man was clearly drained after such a long meeting, however he still managed to talk with a humorous tone.

Fuyutsuki was surprised to see her there, he had entered the room four hours ago still the blond was standing in the exact same place she was when he left.

"I take it went well for you to be making jokes..."

"Ah doctor there was no need to wait here I was just heading for your-"

"This was my request, so I figured the least I could do was wait here... I'm sorry but could you please tell me what was decided?"

"Very well." the commander who looked tired took a small pause and continued, " All of your requests have been approved."

"Just like that?"

"Of course not. They even went as far as accusing our city of 'burning the world' with all that happened, needless to say they are already creating a cover story for the Eva Series and SEELE incident. They don't wish to spend 'unnecessary' money."

"Then how did you get them to agree sir?"

"I made use of the data your lovely assistant was capable of retrieving with the help of the MAGI. One look at the contents and the entire room approved all of our requests."

"What about the treaty?"

"That was a rather hard topic to address but after what happened with the Eva Series they must have thought it would be best that way."

"Now all we need is for phase two to finish."

"That is incorrect doctor, we still need to catch the final member of SEELE and interrogate him." the commander looked up at the ceiling with a pained expression "And we will also need them when the time comes..."

Ritsuko nodded in agreement, she knew all too well that in the end there was only so much she could do.

"Now... How is Ikari?"

Again just the simple mention of that name was enough to upset the doctor "He is stable, the wound has started to heal. Did his name get mentioned?"

"Well he couldn't just try to pull off Third Impact and expect to be left alone." Fuyutsuki smiled sadly "No matter how good of an idea or how romantic it seemed to him destroying the world for Yui would not be seen too kindly."

The blond winced at that name, it was a name she came to hate for reasons that were just too private.

"I must go now, I have another meeting about the treaty in about fifty minutes and I'd like to be ready for it." he flashed a brief smile at the blond scientist and left.

xxx

_'And it begins... I just knew it.'_

Shinji knew this would happen, but no matter how well he knew it, the young pilot always reacted the same way.

"Aww but you squeezed me so hard, are you sure you weren't trying to grab anything?" he found amazing that Misato could say such things while smiling, just hearing that made him blush endlessly. "It was 'Shinji's special hug!'"

"I-it's not like that..." saying this Shinji started to walk away, he knew if he didn't she wouldn't stop "I have to go otherwise I'll be late for school, lunch is already done and packed, I also fed Penpen and cleaned your room, bye!" and with that the boy walked out the door eager to leave Misato and her incessant teasing behind.

"Special hug..." the young pilot sighed "She'll never let me live this down."

Misato looked at the door and smiled gently "Thank you Shinji-kun." the major was happy to see her charge in a such a good mood.

xxx

Shinji was feeling much better, it was all thanks to Misato. He was so distracted he didn't even remember that in school he was still 'the' celebrity, so he walked into the room casually listening to his trusted SDAT player and sat down quietly.

However unlike the previous day there was no bombardment from his classmates, everyone still seemed to be eying him but no one came running asking questions.

"Good morning Ikari-kun, you seem to be in a better mood today." unlike the previous day he didn't need to look recognize the person who was addressing him.

"G-good morning Horaki-san."

She flashed him a smile and headed towards her seat. Shinji returned to his own little world that the SDAT player was capable of creating for him, so he didn't notice the freckled girl glancing at him with questioning eyes.

Despite not knowing the girl well Shinji thought Hikari was one of the kindest persons he had met, unlike the rest who were just curious to know if something amazing happened she had held back her questions not once but twice now.

His mind floated away once more. And once again he was brought back by an all too familiar voice.

"So... Are you going to tell me what happened?"

_'Kensuke... If I tell him I destroyed a whole bunch of Evangelions he'll kill me...'_

Shinji was aware that his friend Kensuke was a military otaku and always wished with all his heart that he could pilot an Evangelion, Shinji figured telling him he ripped apart several pilot-less Evangelions would make him snap. He just couldn't stop himself from chuckling at the thought of a crazed Kensuke Aida.

"Hmm... Aren't we in a good mood? This must be the first time I see you laugh like that... Though you could just have flipped... You okay?" the otaku was clearly joking, whatever the reason, Shinji was acting less gloomy than usual and that was always welcome.

"I-" He was cut off by the class rep apparently he had been lost in his thoughts for more time then he thought because the teacher was already entering the classroom.

Four minutes into the class and he was already half asleep. _'Second Impact again? Did we talk about anything else during the entire year?' _Shinji tried hard, but the boredom was just more than he could handle.

"Shinji-kun." a beautiful voice reached his hears and he opened his eyes, to his surprise most of the students were already gone... How long had he been sleeping he wondered.

When he looked up he found the source of the heavenly voice. Shinji did not want to talk to Rei, he wasn't mad at her, after all it wasn't her fault, nothing was her fault, she was just another victim of his father... Still he hadn't been able to speak with the blue haired beauty ever since that incident... The day he found out about her, about her origin.

He figured he should be mad, it was the natural response when finding out something like that, however he didn't hate her, nor did he think any different of her, to him she was still the beautiful Rei Ayanami, his comrade in the battle field, and above of all his friend... Yet he still couldn't talk to her, was it some kind of trauma? Did he subconsciously hate the albino girl? No... He just wasn't over the shock.

Rei was the mysterious girl that seemed to alienate everyone around her, the only stable social relationship she seemed to be able to maintain was with his father, Shinji had envied the girl for that however, soon after he forgot about her relation with his father and started to notice the girl more.

Even when some called her heartless and cold or even a doll he could see she was only a little harder to reach. However that alone wasn't enough to approach the albino, Shinji was much too shy to try something has daring as that. What really brought them closer was that incident...

xxx

**The 16th Angel Armisael.**

"Deploy Unit 01 to assist Unit 00! Now!" Misato yelled at the top of her lungs, the situation was dire, the 16th angel had attempted to fuse with Unit 00 and there was nothing Rei could do even at point-blank the massive riffle Unit 00 carried wasn't making any kind of damage.

"Misato-san I'm ready!"

"Unit 01 launch!" with her words the bolts were released and the Evangelion was sent at an insane speed through the launch rail. "Now remember Shinji-kun the target is extremely powerful and can infect you if you allow it to establish contact, weapons don't seem to work either and there is no visible weaknesses... So what I'm saying is... Help Unit 00 retreat!"

"Got it!" the communications with Eva 01 went silent and Misato could only pray for the safety of the two children. Something she hated more than anything, even more than the Angels, was putting them in harms way and yet she did it more than once.

Xxx

With a tremendous sound the purple behemoth came to a stop at the end of the launcher. The Angel seemed to notice him but paid no attention it was fully concentrated in his prey.

"Ayanami!" when connection was established with the blue cyclops Shinji's eyes widened in horror most of the blue haired body was disfigured and she was emitting small cries of agony.

The Angel was connected to the blue Eva's abdomen and paid no attention to the purple titan, which was already sprinting towards its fallen comrade, this however triggered the Angel. It did not seem happy to be disturbed and with a swing of its body it tried to hit the death machine.

"Shinji watch out!" Misato's voice brought him back in time to force the behemoth into a spectacular jump.

He was sure it was going to launch its second attack upon the purple titan, however said attack never came. Then he realized it wasn't trying to kill him it was trying to preserve its connection with Unit 00.

"_If I can separate them maybe I-"_

"AHHHH!" before he could come up with a plan he heard the blue haired girl screech. "I-Ikari...kun?" her voice was not what he was used to, Rei was a very quiet person and her voice was one of the most elegant sounds he had ever heard, yet now one could hear the raw fear and pain in every word.

"Rei! REI!" Shinji was panicking, so much he forgot to formally address the girl, not only was her body disfigured but she was now crying, he had never seen such a thing before. "Rei don't worry I'm going to help you!"

"It's to late, goodbye... Shinji-kun..." with those words the First Child reached for the self-destruct lever of her Evangelion.

_'I gotta do something... ANYTHING!' _

In the blink of an eye the purple death machine was approaching the cyclops evading every blow Armisael sent at it. Without any better ideas the pilot of the titan took the only decision that would save Rei. He could hear it the voices from the communicator, they yelled at him to retreat, his father's voice being the loudest. Was he worried about him? No, it was Unit 01 he yelled for and that was why Shinji ignored it all.

Xxx

Rei was crying but not from the pain, she never thought this would happen, her life given to her by the commander had only one purpose yet she cried, she cried because she did not want to lose it.

But most of all she cried because of the commander she could see through her communication window that he wasn't worried about her, he would let her die if it was necessary. Of course! After all she was only a tool, nothing more, her existence only justified by her purpose to serve him. In this situation only one person came to her mind, someone who truly cared for her.

It was like he was really there... Was he?

"I-Ikari...kun?"

"REI!"

_'Ikari-kun! Wait Rei?'_ even if it was not the place she could only think of the way the boy called for her, it was filled with emotion, and not only that but for the first time since they met he treated her by her name if she was not mistaken that was the way friends treated each other.

"Rei don't worry I'm going to help you!" his voice trembling panicking...

"It's to late, goodbye... Shinji-kun..." that was when she made the decision, she would have to do it she would have to end herself, not because of the commander and his plans not because of the human race, but because she wanted to protect him... Her friend... _'Shinji-kun'_

And that was why she finally lost all control, tears now fell freely down her face, she was reaching for the tool that would finish her exitence and that was when she heard it, the voices. "SHINJI, DON'T! RETREAT!"

The major, the commander, everyone told him to stand down yet the horned behemoth didn't stop, dodging every blow the seemingly invincible foe threw at it, it continued to advance. It was a deadly battle yet the way the titan moved made it look more like a beautiful dance than a duel, dodging every attack while running at an insane speed the death machine reached its destination.

"Shinji.. k-kun, what are...!" her eyes widened as an insane amount of pain coursed through her body "Ah! AHH!"

xxx

The behemoth wrapped its hands around the snake-like Angel and forced it to connect with the titan's own body, the connection with Unit 00 was weakened, that was what he had been waiting for.

"RAAAAAAGH!" he forced the colossus to use all of its remaining strength and kick the cyclops. With a powerful kick the Prototype was sent flying against a building, and another, and another... It did not stop until after it destroyed several structures.

The young boy felt relief wash through his body, however it did not last long as pain took its place. "AGH...!"

"Limbo... That's where we are in case you're wondering..."

Shinji jolted up and saw... himself staring at him with a look or irritation clouding his face "Wh-"

"You would not understand... However I do hope you understand what you did was irritating." it... him... whatever it was it sighed "No matter, this is just as good, I'm sorry but your soul is in the way, I'll have to make you go away now."

"What?" Shinji had no idea what was happening it didn't want to fuse with him like it did with Rei, it seemed more interested in... Eva Unit 01?

It held up its hand and Shinji fell to his knees "AAAAAHHHH!" every limb seemed to disintegrate. And just as quick as it came it went away and he could see a female figure in front of him with her arms spread open.

xxx

"Damn it Shinji-kun come in!" Misato should be furious because the pilot of Unit 01 had just disobeyed her orders, however more than angry she was worried.

"Unit 00's stats returning to normal pilot survival confirmed!" Lt. Ibuki reported sounding relived.

"What ab-" the major was cut off by the commander when she was about to ask for the conditions of Shinji.

"What about Unit 01 what's happening to it?" She couldn't believe it he was more worried about his precious weapon than his own son...

"I can't tell, it went silent shortly after the connection was made!"

"Contact Rei she is to connect Unit 00 with the Angel again!" Misato couldn't believe her hears but the commander wasn't joking he was fuming with rage, she didn't quite understand why but whatever the reason sending Rei out again was impossible and insane.

"WHAT? Unit 00 can't continue fighting sir it-"

Again she found herself cut off by the commander "I didn't say fight I said make Unit 00 the Angel's target again!"

Misato was a good major and a damn good officer and that's why she knew when the commander had snapped "I'm sor-"

"BERSERK!" Lt Shigeru yelled looking at the computer in front of him.

Everyone shifted their gaze to the main screen where the titan ripped its jaw restraints apart and roared shattering the glass of several buildings. The Angel started to squirm violently trying to break free from the horned behemoth however the titan did not allow it, with a violent jolt the Angel was capable of ripping the death machine's right arm off.

The purple titan roared again as it grabbed its foe and started to squeeze it as if looking for something. Another violent jolt and the behemoth's horn was shattered leaving a massive crack in the titan's mask, but it still wasn't enough to disturb the bio-weapon.

Suddenly as if it had found what it was looking for the titan brought the misbehaved snake to his mouth and bit it down hard on the spot it had been groping earlier with an inhuman screech and a strange cracking sound Armisael evaporated.

Everyone stood looking shocked at the figure of Unit 01, the colossal monster had once again done what was thought impossible and even more impressive it had done so with ease.

"Communications reestablished." Shinji opened his eyes and he felt confused and disoriented "Pilot survival confirmed."

"Rei..."

xxx

After the incident with the 16th Angel Shinji and Rei became much closer. She talked more frequently with him and he felt more at ease around her but what was built between them wasn't something easy to explain nor was it meant to be explained. It was a connection that surpassed words, it was a wordless bond.

Even though Rei had tried to return to her former cold self after the incident where Shinji found out about her creation she failed miserably, the bond that had been forged between the two of them could not be shattered by her alone.

Shinji didn't hate her and he didn't want to lose the new connection he had been able to create with Rei. He could still read her crimson eyes like they were an open book, not that he needed to, after what happened anyone that looked at Rei's eyes could tell she was sad, not because she had become easier to read but because anyone could tell she had been crying.

He should have been there, he should have told her what he thought of the entire situation, but he couldn't not only was he affected by the overwhelming truth but he was also suffering, suffering from the events that involved Tabris...

xxx

She could tell Shinji was deep into his thoughts, about her no doubt, just imagining what he thought of her forced her to battle a tear back. She had never established with any other being the connection she shared with Shinji, and had never experienced pain liked this, she had been severely injured in battle and had nearly died, however the pain she felt now managed to be worse.

_'Why is it that it hurts more than the worst of physical wounds, why...?'_

Shinji raised his head and looked her straight in the eyes. "Rei-chan I-" she shook her head, there was no need for words, she could read his eyes just like she was sure he could read hers.

"I'm sorry Shinji-kun... for not telling you."

"No it's me who should be sorry."

With those simple words order had been reestablished, a brief hardly noticeable smiled adorned the beautiful albino's face before she headed off.

She was happy and felt like... Smiling.

He still thought of her as a friend.

xxx

"Misato-san" Shinji looked around the house and found no one.

After a while where he cleaned the room that miraculously managed to get dirty every 5 minutes he found a note under several piles of garbage.

_I knew you'd find this if I left it in my room =P_

_Anyways I'm on an important mission and won't be back before late tonight so please make me a super delicious dinner and don't wait up I promise I'll give you a special hug when I return so look forward to it =3_

_Love (and lotsa special huggies) Misato._

"Special hug..." Shinji sighed "She'll never let me live this down..."

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Well I took extra long with this one, there were two reasons for that; laziness and vacations, I actually thought that being vacations and all I'd be able to write faster but I guess I was wrong...

Anyways, new chapter new hordes of haters hehe, in this chapter I wanted to make Shinji's relationship with Rei deeper, I still have not decided the pairing I am going to ship out on this fic however this is about more than one single pairing that is the center of the universe, I want to get some development out of everyone... Why did Rei get hers before everyone else? Because me likey Rei that's why!

So I thought if there was a way to get something out of this idea it would be to save Rei-chan from Armisael. As I see it any and every character development we got before the lord of the rings got there and forced Rei to kill herself was wasted... So, why not change that since I already pulled off so many changes? I do apologize for the fight with Armisael I just wasn't feeling too battle inspired.

Again I remind you that just because I like ShinjixRei pairing doesn't mean I dislike any of the others, so don't assume this will be a Shinrei fic just because of a chapter I focused more on Rei and Shinji's relation.

Now then, thanks to the OST of Black Cat (Why didn't it have the music when Eve fights Leon why? It was awesome *brooklyn range*) was very inspiring and Banya for Beethoven Virus.

Again I thank those who voted on the pool and left me kind reviews thank you very much I love your support. So keep on voting and if you felt like I deserved it leave a review behind.


	5. Lunchtime & Revival

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion

**Chapter 05**

**Lunchtime & Revival**

"My ears are still ringing major..." a husky voice came from the hear piece of the lavender haired major.

"Dammit team 2 isn't answering! Team 3 go and check on those idiots!" Misato was pissed, this was the last she would be hearing from any mission regarding SEELE, unfortunately the members of SEELE weren't small fries and their connections went deep in the underworld. That's why they were so well prepared, informers probably warned the last free member of SEELE about Misato's raid group.

Several special agents were put under the command of Major Katsuragi, their numbers were small but they were the best of the best... Or so they said, and Misato was starting to doubt that because team one commanded by Misato had seen a trap wired to a bomb and warned teams two and three about it, yet group two still managed to detonate it and warn the entire neighborhood they were there, not to mention they could also be injured.

Misato's self ranting came to an end when team 2 finally replied "Sir we're very sorry one of our own tripped and detonated the bo-" the rest was impossible to make sense of because that was when all hell broke lose.

xxx

"I see, you're mercenaries, that makes sense there isn't a single law enforcing agency that would like to make deals with SEELE, we've spread several warnings about them... Still, you're very moronic mercenaries." Misato leaned back and looked at the ceiling. "Who would accept that kind of work but morons? You knew you were going to lose, I mean you didn't really expect to take on a governmental agency... You do realize he hired you just to buy time to escape right? And thanks to you we can't find him now..."

"..."

"Military right? Yeah I know what they teach you... Well it isn't really my job to interrogate prisoners so I'll just head off and let the kind people of Damoncles do it their way." she turned on her heels and while exiting the room she signaled the mirror to send in the interrogating team. "Have fun!"

_'Dammit because of this failure I couldn't go home last night...'_

Once outside the lavender haired beauty sighed and dragged herself through the crowded hallways of Damoncles looking tired. "As if my day wasn't bad enough they still haven't dealt with the crowd problem... Just transfer non-essential personnel..." she complained to no one in particular.

"It isn't that simple major, they can't just replace the original staff of Damoncles by Nerv's people." she recognized that voice, the captain of team three some guy called Rodney Garson. He had long blond hair and blue eyes, many of Nerv female personnel called him model material and drooled all over whenever he was around. "Say, why don't we go out for a drink I-"

"Not interested captain, thank you very much!"

Misato didn't dislike the attention, and the captain lived up to the rumors. If this offer was made a few months back she wouldn't think twice, but since Shinji, her lunch maker and personal giant biomechanical robot pilot entered her life she settled down. After all, her usual life style wasn't good for him, men going in and out of her house while she kept trying to dirty her body...

However when Kaji reentered her life she started to learn that old habits die hard, even trying to push back the scruffy man she eventually fell pray to his incessant advances and she fell once again to his arms.

She again hated herself, for succumbing... No, for letting him have his way. This had become some kind of ritual to Misato, she would always fall to a self hating marathon, filled with depression hidden under her fake smile. However her 'ritual' never hit that stage, because of one reason; Shinji. The boy that would rather take a bullet to the chest than make someone unhappy.

After her slip, she was beginning the cycle again, yet something was different that time, the cycle had been broken by her ward, her caretaker. Shinji of course had no idea of what he had done, he had just been nice like always. Something as simple as that was what made the difference...

She knew deep down that what she wanted was that, someone to treat her nice, to be sweet to her. But all the men she encountered were only after one thing and she had never been treated kindly by them, unless a free beer counted as being nice, mostly she was treated like nothing more than a toy, the most noticeable case being Kaji.

Unfortunately Misato didn't quite get why she hadn't gone through her usual cycle and she didn't get to explore this breakthrough because later an already fragile Shinji shut down after having to kill the seventeenth Angel which caused Misato to forget about that progress.

But after the near Third Impact incident, where she almost died, and the world nearly ended Misato decided it was time to change, if not for her at least for Shinji.

After retrieving the commander and arresting him Shinji couldn't stay with him, not to mention that if they did place Shinji under his care she was afraid of what might happen.

After what happened two days back she made up her mind, when Shinji actually thought she wanted him out because he wasn't needed to pilot the Eva anymore she decided to take action, he admitted he wanted to stay there and Misato didn't want him to leave either that was why she was going to forward the adoption papers.

With his father in jail and without Nerv to bend the rules he wouldn't be able to stay with her, she needed to do it by the rules, become his guardian officially. The major hadn't talked with Shinji yet but she would deal with that later.

"But-"

"Refused! Rejected! Bye!" she sped up and headed for the science department leaving the blond soldier standing there.

xxx

Soon enough she found her target.

"Maya-chan! Good morning!" to be honest Misato had never talked much to Maya seeing her only as Ritsuko's sidekick, however with the blond's recent behavior of shutting herself for days in the lower levels of Damoncles Misato and her talkative self turned to Maya whom turned out to be a very interesting person.

The first lieutenant looked at the major suspiciously and smiled, this making the lavender haired woman curious. "What's wrong something on my face?"

"Oh nothing, just the massive smile, if I didn't know you were human I'd say there was no way a human could pull off a grin as wide as that... What happened major?"

"Misato! Mi-Sa-To!" the girl was a genius but still couldn't be less formal with her. "And nothing happened, I'm just happy because I figured a new way to tease Shinji-kun."

xxx

Maya had no idea how to react to that statement, in the little time she talked with the major she had come to realize that despite the obvious weirdness Misato and Shinji's relationship was solid and they clearly cared for each other. She still remembered when Misato 'forced' the S2 organ to send Shinji back. The major had cried, cried in a way Maya never thought Misato was capable of crying.

"So, I assume you managed to resolve the problem with Shinji-kun?"

_'Two days ago she looked like she was a zombie and then yesterday she nearly blinded the staff of Damoncles with her bright smile. The only thing that's capable of changing the major so fast and drastically is Shinji...'_

Maya actually found their relationship cute, when Shinji was suffering it was like Misato morphed into Miss Gloom and when he was happier or their problems were fixed she turned into Miss Sunshine.

Misato nodded looking surprised that Maya already knew "Oh Maya-chan who told you?" at this comment Maya just giggled and continued to browse through her files. It was quite obvious to anyone who knew her and took the time to look at her.

xxx

Shinji was bored. Because there should exist a limit to how many times someone can repeat themselves. However his teacher didn't seem to think the same way.

And as if on cue the bell ran it meant that it finally was lunchtime. Shinji headed off looking for a good spot to eat lunch, Kensuke wasn't around and he was the only person he spent lunch time with so today he was on his own. Usually he ate at the classroom but he was afraid that the temporary cease-fire would come to an end and that he would get a shower of unwanted questions.

He looked around and like always school was nearly empty. There was a group of people eating lunch under a tree and a few girls dispersed around school in small groups.

Shinji sighed and thought he would have to go have lunch in the roof again, he like having lunch in the roof but it was hotter than usual and today he would be happier if he could find a suitable shade. Bored and sleepy he headed for the roof, with the heat he was sure he would have to endure Shinji was afraid he might fall asleep up there.

"Shinji-kun." Halfway through the stairs he was stopped by a voice he had come to be familiar with, being familiar with a voice wasn't something most people would be proud of but Rei Ayanami hardly talked with anyone.

"Rei-chan, can I help you?"

"Could I ask where you are going?"

It was always nice to see Rei trying to be friendly to him, Shinji had been able to talk with her a lot after the incident with Armisael, and every time the quiet girl tried to initiate a conversation with Shinji she seemed to try harder and harder to make it last as long possible.

"I am going to the roof to eat lunch, I couldn't find a good place to eat."

"Then why don't you accompany me to the classroom? It is a pleasant place to eat." Shinji hesitated and looked at Rei for a while. He liked the invitation but his shy nature still kicked in around Rei, plus the possibility of question showers were also taking their tool on him.

"You are not required to obey my request if you do not wish to do so." Even if she said that Shinji could see through what most people couldn't with Rei so he knew she was actually... Anxious. Then he remembered that friendship was something new to her, not to mention they were starting to get close again and that was more than enough to make Shinji's shyness and hesitance disappear.

"N-no. I'd like that..." to that answer Rei smiled briefly, it was so brief Shinji didn't even realize it.

xxx

"This just gets better and better..." Misato was looking at the snack machine where a power bar stubbornly refused to drop. "Stupid machine!" with that she kicked the machine hard making a loud crashing sound as the machine fell down.

Maya just stood there sweating bullets, praying that a Damoncles guard wouldn't show up.

"Major please... It-"

"Maya-chan how many times do I have to tell you? It's Misato!"

"That doesn't matter! What if one of the guards come?"

"Relax I'm their major." she answered with a grin plastered on her face.

The young scientist was starting to feel sorry for her sempai, if this was how the major behaved everyday it was really problematic.

"Oh I really wish I had gone home today..." she sighed again and gave a death glare to the damned machine.

"Oh? Why's that?"

"Because I could tease Shinji-kun, that would greatly cheer me up." at this remark Maya felt really sorry for Shinji "And I bet I would have an amazing lunch, I know it sounds like I'm making it up but he cooks better everyday."

_'I'm starting to wonder if Shinji-kun isn't really just her slave...' _She thought smiling softly at the strange ways they interacted.

xxx

"So you didn't bring anything to eat?" Rei nodded and continued to look over the window into the deep blue sky "Come to think of it I never saw you having lunch in school..."

Rei remained silent but her attention was fully on Shinji now as if trying to understand what he was trying to say, it was obvious he wanted to say something, she could see it "What is it Shinji-kun?"

"W-Well... I..." he stretched out his bento box "Here, I made a vegetarian meal today since I didn't need to make any for Misato, if you want... we could hmm... share."

Rei's facial expression became one of surprise while she looked at the box and then back at Shinji.

"I-I mean we don't have to... It's just-" just when Shinji was starting to panic and about to withdraw what was probably one of the boldest moves he had ever made Rei finally answered.

"Thank you Shinji-kun..." a slight blush adorned the cheeks of the beautiful albino as she thanked the boy and reached for the offered meal.

After a while they were silently enjoying Shinji's meal until Shinji broke that comfortable silence."ACHOO!"

"Are you ill Shinji-kun?" Rei looked at the boy with an inquiring look.

"No, I'm sure I'm okay, someone must be talking about me."

"I do not understand... But if you are not ill I am... Glad..."

"Th-Thank you Rei-chan."

Shinji looked around the classroom, and it would be an understatement saying that his classmates were baffled. Rei the emotionless girl or ice princess as some had come to call her was actually having lunch with another human being, and even more of a surprise was the fact that Shinji was maintaining a conversation for more than five seconds with her.

xxx

"So, what about Asuka?" Maya asked.

Misato winced at the question, she had been trying to keep the redhead out of any conversations, specially near Shinji, it might be the wrong thing to do, in a way it was almost as if she was trying to erase the redhead from his life, and because of that the major often wondered if it was the right thing to do.

But seeing Shinji actually moving forward was better than dragging Asuka into his head again, it would be like a boot to the face, he was clearly improving and had already stopped putting all the guilt of those events on himself.

"She's still unconscious but her wounds are healing, she'll live we have the best medical technology in the whole world."

"You know she will eventually wake up..."

"I'll deal with it when it happens. Besides knowing her when she wakes up she'll blame Shinji for not being there, and taking into account that it was him that single-handedly beat the entire Eva Series that will only make it worse..."

"Well I hope you're doing the right thing..." the young computer tech was looking at Misato with a worried expression.

_'So do I Maya-chan, so do I...'_

xxx

"...And so it was called Second Impact, for obvious reasons."

And so Shinji was bored for obvious reasons. Shinji wasn't that much into maths but he'd much prefer listen to something new than the broken record that was Second Impact.

Shinji's eyes scanned the classroom looking for others who also gave up on this matter long ago, and it was no surprise to find that most of the students were blankly looking at walls, windows and even the floor.

The only ones who seemed to actually pay attention was Hikari and some other girl Shinji didn't know. But he was sure she had been a part of the flock who tried to squeeze information out of him after he came back.

Suddenly a low tone beep called for his attention and Shinji looked at the school laptop.

Request to join chat: KS Armada.

Shinji looked at the request for a while, school laptops were made for school use only and sometimes were used to discuss school works through messages but chat programs were often created by people who had the know-hows and Kensuke was one of them. He had created a small chat room that teachers couldn't access to, so that the two of them could talk, of course Shinji had tried to dissuade the otaku but he didn't listen and even called it the Kensuke & Shinji Armada.

Shinji decided to go along for now, class was boring him too much and falling asleep on class repeatedly wasn't good for him.

Xxx

**IShinji accepted invitation to join KS Armada.**

**SgtKen: **Yo! How's class Shin?

**IShinji: **It's basically like always.

**SgtKen: **You my friend can't fool the great I, you would only accept the invite if it was apocalyptic...

**IShinji: **I see.

**SgtKen: **Anyways, I got back from the doctor and there was a documentary about the M6 on TV it was epic...

The rest of class passed by slowly with Kensuke going on and on about military documentaries, weapons and technical terms Shinji had never heard of.

Until finally the blessed bell rang and Shinji started packing his things.

Xxx

Rei was distantly looking at at the blue sky and thinking of the events that took place earlier during lunchtime with Shinji.

_'I enjoyed that.'_

The blue haired girl didn't even realize the bell had rang and was only alerted to this fact by the subject of her thoughts that had gotten up and was packing his things.

_'Friendship is... Warm. I wish for more.' _

Rei got up, walked over to Shinji and waited patiently as he finished packing all of his belongings.

"Oh Rei-chan, can I help with anything?" the blue eyed young man looked at her curiously.

"It is to my understanding that friends may accompany each other home if they so choose to do... Is it acceptable for me to request that?"

At this Shinji blushed and swayed a little to his sides seeming extremely flustered. Rei had never been on such good terms with anyone except for the commander and so she was inexperienced. Afraid she might have said something to compromised their relationship she winced.

"Y-yes... hmm you don't need to ask for those kind of things Rei-chan, at least not in such a formal way."

This time was Rei's turn to blush as she gained a slight shade of pink and she nodded slightly at Shinji's words.

xxx

Blue, everything was blue, almost as if someone had painted the world blue, it was a dark shade of blue unlike the lively color of the sky it had a dark side to it.

She gave two steps and realized that the blue paint was still fresh as she heard it splash, she ignored the bizarre scenario and continued to move, she had to continue moving, she wasn't sure why but she just knew she had to.

After several hours walking in the blue paint she felt like she was starting to sink the more she walked forward the deeper it became and now it was already by her waist. And that was when she realized the blue paint wasn't paint, it was blood, blue blood.

_'W-What!'_

Suddenly the world of blue finally began to make sense, and the endless blue turned into a town. She looked in horror at the pieces of a red titan that were spread through the entire landscape, she began to sob, but continued to head forward as if she just couldn't stop, something was luring her, calling her...

A few steps later the scenario changed again she was standing on a road and she saw it, several bodies hanging from the street lamps, not just any bodies, it was her body over and over again, they swayed gently by the wind. The most disturbing thing about this view was that the hanged cadavers had huge grins on their faces.

She began panting and sweating as her tears just wouldn't stop. As she continued to walk white vultures came flying and started to rip her slim body to shreds.

She couldn't hold it in while watching herself being torn to shreds so she screamed, she screamed as hard as her lungs allowed her to.

"SOMEBODY HELP ME SAVE ME I'M BEING EATEN!"

But no one heard, no one came she was left there watching her bodies being eaten by the white vultures. She watched in horror as the birds continued their work making sure there wasn't enough left to even recognize the redhead.

Once they were through with ripping her to shreds the vultures turned to her direction and spread their bizarre wings.

_'It's over, they are going to kill me and rip me apart in such a way no one will ever know its me...'_

With that in mind the redhead braced herself for the future she knew was coming. But in that moment of despair she imagined 'him' walk slowly towards her with an amazingly long spear in hand as his enemies shook in fear for angering him by what they did with her body.

But of course he never came, she was left on her own so now it was time for her to go. When the white vultures finally reached her they morphed, as if they were inflating their bodies became massive and wide grins spread across the face of each and everyone of them.

She could recognize those bastards anywhere, they were the ones who had been able of humiliating her, even though she had her mother protecting her, even though she had beaten them to a bloody pulp... They managed to rise and bring down another humiliating defeat upon her.

Her body started to heat up and her heart racing at the thought of those damned bastards, she wanted to rip them apart where they stood and cover the entire world with their guts, put them in their places for what they did... But her body didn't respond, like before she could only lie there helpless as they came closer and closer.

When they seemed ready to attack, their twisted grin just grew wider and a loud laughing sound came from their mouths still covered in red from the blood of the carnage they brought down upon her fellow hanged bodies.

"You Bastards! Do You Think this Is Funny!" Despite her screams the redhead couldn't hold back the never ending tears, nor could she hide the expression of horror she had.

_'Mama, Kaji, Misato... Shinji... save me...'_

She pleaded with all her heart for someone to come, someone who would stop them, but yet again no one came.

When she couldn't take anymore the scenario shifted again, now the redhead was sitting in a stool wearing a beautiful red cocktail dress looking at a faceless bartender.

There she saw Kaji picking up other girls, no doubt about the same age as herself and smiling at them.

"You know age is not a problem for me girls, I just didn't care for that little brat Soryu haha!"

Asuka looked dejected at the scene that was unfolding in front of her, and on the far end of the bar she saw a beautiful redhead hanging small dolls in her table smiling maniacally at her work while her friend with lavender hair smooched several guys and threw smiles at the other woman.

"Mama... Misato..."

With a look of horror on her face she turned to a last figured, a young man with blue eyes and dark hair that was playing the cello on stage, and unlike all the previous characters he made eye contact with her. Her presence acknowledged for the first time.

She smiled at the cello player and tears came falling down her cheeks, with all the strength she had left she got up and walked slowly towards the stage where she thought she would be able of finding help in this damned reality.

As she was about to reach her destination she found herself surrounded by them, the same bastards that had tore her apart earlier, on any other occasion she would have tried to intimidate them and if they didn't get that at first she would beat them senseless but something was preventing her body from moving all it was doing was shiver uncontrollably. Fear.

Knowing what was coming, knowing they were here to finish her off the redhead screamed at the top of her lungs, this time they would hear, this time they would come to save her...

No one budged. She looked at everyone and they just continued to enjoy themselves, the redhead was now laughing out loud at the small hanged dolls, the lavender haired woman was 5 minutes away from starting an orgy and the scruffy man was now feeling up the several girls he had around him. She looked desperate and then her eyes flew to her last hope, the cello player he who had acknowledged her presence, he would save her, he would...

No doubt he was looking at her concerned with a caring sad look on his face but still he didn't move to help her, he stood there looking sorry and started to play his sad yet beautiful song.

xxx

"What? She's what?"

"Her brain waves are off the charts, it's possible she might just be having a really bad dream.. or she might finally be coming back."

"I see... So you're not sure but you want me to go there right?"

"I'm afraid so, her wounds are nearly healed and we took her off the sedatives so it's only natural she regains consciousness soon ma'am..."

"Alright I'll be over there soon..." Misato sighed and looked at the pile of reports she had been working on. "Asuka..."

xxx

Her eyes burst open and the redhead found herself looking at a ceiling. With her body sore all over she noted the only place she couldn't feel pain in was on her right arm.

"I'm... Alive?"

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Mighty late update, I am sorry, I spent most of the time out of town and only had my laptop for a while... Here is chapter five love it or hate it it's here.

Anyways, time for busyness... Or ranting... Oh I can't tell anymore it's all the same to me!

My weakness is, no matter the story when it involves Rei and Shinji I just go all "D'awww" and because of that I guess I went a little overboard, but this also works as a kind of a back door if I opt to go with a Rei&Shin fic. So yeah it feels good to write it like this and at the same time it might also be useful in the future.

I also got Maya a more active roll in my little plot, and went a little deeper into Misato's psych trying to explain how much Shinji is important in her current state of mind, actually contributing to her actions, without compromising her character.

Oh! And I'm finally bringing someone back from the dead. Yeah... I also wanted to try and make one of those internal judgment kind of things but I think it did more damage to the plot than it helped... And yes I realize I used 'blue' a lot but I did it that way so that I could empathize the trauma.

Many thanks to Fairy Tail OST vol.2 and the OST of FMP very inspiring, it got me through this chapter.

Now to the really important thanks.

To those of you who left me super reviews and voted, once again I thank you, it really helps a lot. So please keep on voting and like always leave a review if it was worth your time.

Also I apologize for the language I used on this chapter, I tried to keep it to a minimum but I figured Asuka's psych deemed it necessary. And why doesn everytime I write something like Mi(dot)sa(dot)to the "Mi" and the "sa" disappear? Geez...


	6. Confrontation With The Devil Pt1

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion.

**Chapter 06**

**Confrontation With The Devil Part 1**

Misato wasn't the best person when it came to dealing with delicate matters, and right now she found herself in the middle of a potentially explosive situation that needed to be handled with delicacy. Needless to say she wasn't thrilled about the idea, specially since she was part of the reason why things got to that point.

It was like the weather itself was against her, after a sunny and hot day all of a sudden rain came pouring down and thanks to that she was now standing in traffic looking blankly at the fortress city cursing the weather.

"Asuka... Shinji..." the lavender haired woman spoke to no one in particular while countless drops hit the rooftop of the car creating a soothing sound.

Because in the end, it all came down to that, Asuka and Shinji.

Shinji... Her quest to keep him happy and protect him was going well, only for a while though, and now it was all about to explode right on her face. Then there was Asuka, Misato was ashamed of herself but the truth was she had almost erased her from their lives, with her mind focused on Shinji's problems there was no way she could talk about her simply because she was one of Shinji's problems...

_'Move it! It's green you moron!'_

xxx

_'It came out of nowhere, one moment it was sunny the next it started raining like there was no tomorrow...'_

Sighing the young pilot threw his damp clothes to the pile of dirty laundry and readied himself for the task ahead, sure he had dealt with worse chores, Misato actually made him wash her undies... But Rei's clothes were different, and just putting them to dry was making Shinji blush furiously.

"Now with that done..." _'another hard task.'_

Still blushing the young pilot headed for Misato's room.

Shinji usually found the rain to be nice and peaceful, sometimes taking his mind off unpleasant thoughts, now he just found it very irritating, thanks to it his walk home was rather unpleasant. Not to mention it was also the cause of his current problems.

Shinji and Rei were caught by surprise by the intense downpour, if it were up to the albino they would have just walked home in the rain, but the young boy suggested they headed to Misato's apartment, since it was close they could just wait there for the rain to stop, they couldn't get an umbrella there because Misato kept on saying it was permanent summer and they wouldn't need it...

Unfortunately they were both soaked by the time they arrived at the apartment, so he told to Rei to take a shower in order to keep herself warm... And that was how Shinji was left with the task of getting Rei some dry clothes...

Entering the room the young pilot headed for the dresser, thanks to Misato not coming home last night the room was actually clean but it was still Misato's territory and he just didn't know what might pop out of that dresser.

Taking a deep breath Shinji opened the dresser, grabbed some underwear trying not to think too much about it and started looking for something that would fit Rei, and like he predicted, there was nothing. Oh there were clothes, just not something a human being should wear... And that left him with only one option...

Since the day he came back from the hospital he hadn't entered that room, because he was scared, the room was harmless obviously, but he still felt like if he entered that domain something terrible would happen.

Sighing for the third time in less than thirty minutes Shinji entered Asuka's room.

The place was dusty, no surprise there, no one had entered the room in a while, but besides that it looked like... Well, like Asuka's room, everything was in its place except for some magazines, there were still the fashion magazines the girl used to read spread around. Shinji wished to end the unwanted visit as fast as he could so he rushed to the dresser and pulled out a light blue summer dress heading outside as fast as his two legs could carry him.

He felt as if as soon as he entered the room Asuka's eyes were following him, that of course was impossible but it still managed to take his mind back to that day...

Pushing away the hurtful thoughts Shinji dropped off the clean clothes outside the bathroom and decided to make something to eat.

xxx

"Katsuragi Misato." Misato looked around and saw an old nurse calling her as soon as she entered the hospital.

"She's awake, follow me..." those words hit the major hard, the words of the doctor on the phone gave her hope she would have some time to get ready for Asuka's awakening.

Guiding the lavender haired woman the nurse wandered through the hospital's hallways as if she knew them by heart.

_'White, why does it always have to be white?'_ Misato always thought that Nerv's hospital lacked color, and right now the major was starting to blend with her surroundings getting paler by the second.

"In there." not sparing the major another look the grumpy looking nurse walked away mumbling something under her breath.

Taking several deep breaths Misato reached for the doorknob but stopped as she heard that familiar voice, Asuka's voice.

"...What the hell do you mean..." aggressive as always the redhead's words reached Misato's ears.

xxx

Shinji suddenly felt a chill down his spine, looking around the pilot dismissed it and continued his task of preparing onigiris, at first he had thought of something different but he soon remembered his guest was a vegetarian, and since it would still be a while until dinner time he decided to make something simple instead of a salad.

Another thing that was capable of taking his mind off painful subjects, besides his trusted SDAT player, was doing chores. Although what he was doing now wasn't necessarily a chore cooking was one thing that he gave his full attention to, that was the reason why he excelled at it.

Finally finished with the onigiris Shinji decided to go check on Rei, it had been quite a while since he left the clothes by the bathroom. He turned around to find the albino quietly sitting in at the table staring at him with what he could recognize as interest.

"Ah, Rei-chan, how long have you been there?"

Getting up Rei looked over his shoulder trying to see what the young boy had been doing.

"Since you started to hum. I was intrigued, wondering what you were so focused on." Shinji took a while to realize what was wrong with the image in front of him but as soon as he did he was left in awe. It was the first time he had seen Rei wearing something else than her school uniform or plug suit. "Shinji-kun are you alright?"

"Y-yes... I was humming?" if he had the courage he would probably tell the blue haired girl in front of him how beautiful she looked, but Shinji lacked social skills and just throwing a compliment like that at Rei was out of the question.

"Yes... Ode To Joy if I am not mistaken." the albino didn't look convinced, Shinji was sure that like he could see through her mask she could see through his, but apparently she decided not to pry further, Rei answered the boy's question siting back down after she saw the carefully made onigiris.

That music, Ode To Joy. Since the incident with the 17th Angel Shinji came to associate it with pain and death, it was like some kind of beautiful calm before the storm. He couldn't believe he still had that thing stuck in his head.

"I see..." it was annoying to say the least,since the rain started Shinji started having one bad feeling after another. Decided to make the best out of his time with his friend he pushed yet again the piling danger warnings out of his head. "Rei-chan I made some onigiris, would you like to eat some while we wait?"

xxx

"I'll ask again. What the hell do you mean no nervous feedback!" the redhead was fuming with rage and the doctor was looking pale, he had probably never dealt with such a patient. Sure people react differently to different news, some people would try to hit their doctor after they found they were dying while others would just cry. But the redhead despite her innocent beauty was actually intimidating even scary, not to mention her medical knowledge was vast.

Misato had entered the room without anyone noticing, Asuka was too focused on scaring the doctor and said doctor seemed to be using all of his strength not to walk out the door and leave his patient talking to herself.

"Asuka I think you should let the doctor speak." with that said the attention of both the doctor and Asuka turned to the major.

"And you ar-"

"Misato..." Asuka looked at the lavender haired woman and then back at her doctor. "You. Out! NOW!"

With a scream capable of shattering glass she ordered the old man out and waited as he slowly made is exit leaving the two women staring at each other.

"That was rude, even for you..."

"I just woke up in a hospital bed, with both physical and nervous damage. Then that idiot tells me that **most** of the nerve damage would heal, but that my right arm is **DAMAGED** **BEYOND REPAIR**." the young redhead scowled and struggled to take a few breaths exhibiting pain every time she tried to breathe in "So excuse me if I'm not all about sunshine and puppies right now..."

"I-I see..." Misato did something she should probably never do in front of the redhead, she felt pity for her, and failed to hide it making the already agitated Asuka look like she was about to explode. Surprisingly the Red Devil calmed down.

"So... What happened? How am I alive... How are we alive?" Asuka asked pointing with left arm to Misato and herself slowly making sure not to hurt herself.

The major slowly walked to the small window near the redhead's bed and looking outside noted that it was still raining.

Keeping her eyes on the pouring water Misato wondered for a few seconds on how to sugarcoat what had happened, but she soon realized that no matter how much she tried Asuka wouldn't just smile and say 'Oh! So that's what happened.'

"Do you remember the JSSDF attacking headquarters?"

Asuka gave her a look that in many ways said "I'm hurt not brain dead!" and nodded.

"Well, sub-commander Fuyutsuki was capable of establishing a secure line to the government and have them cease the attack." the redhead didn't seem impressed with what she learned and kept waiting for the rest of Misato's explanation "Commander Ikari headed for Terminal Dogma where he was going to... Put a plan to work..."

Not wanting to go into detail about what that sick person was going to do Misato decided it was best to keep her mouth shut. Besides, Asuka already treated Rei like a doll, she figured it would only get worse if she knew...

"Anyways, during that time you were fighting the Eva Series..." she saw Asuka wince, it was difficult to tell but it almost looked like the young redhead was scared. Misato couldn't blame her, after all from what she heard Asuka went through hell fighting a virtually invincible army of Evangelions... And that made the major want to stop telling her that story... Because in the end she knew Asuka wouldn't like what she had to say.

"Go on." and like she predicted the redhead wouldn't let her off the hook so easily.

"And I was... I was making sure Shinji-kun reached Evangelion Unit 01 unharmed by the JSSDF forces." for some reason Misato found herself talking in technical terms as if trying to take Asuka's attention off the topic at hand... Needless to say, she failed miserably.

She saw a way out, if she said she was unconscious and didn't know what happened next Asuka couldn't force the major to tell her about the following events... But it was foolish to think she would be satisfied with that, so Misato finally stopped looking for ways out and decided to tell her everything.

"I got injured and blacked out but... I managed to send Shinji-kun to the Eva..." _'Kissing him in the process!'_ She had no idea where in god's name that thought came from but she decided to ignore it and focus on what she was going to say next. "With the JSSDF stopped the only problems were the Eva Series... Problems that soon came to an end. Evangelion Unit 01 suppressed every Unit leaving only a few fingers and shards of armor intact so that they couldn't regenerate and..."

She stopped, not because she couldn't come up with anything else to say or because her last minute speech came to an end. No, she stopped because the redhead wasn't listening anymore. When she heard Unit 01 was the one responsible for the permanent death of the Eva Series she just stopped paying attention to the major.

xxx

Doctor Akagi knocked softly at the door of Commander Fuyutsuki's office, when she hears a muffled response she decides to enter.

Unlike the previous commander's office Fuyutsuki kept a small 'chaotic' office. He stated he did not require a cavern like Gendo, for him a place where he could fit his papers was enough. So he chose one of the smallest offices of the Damoncles. Unfortunately the office was not enough to fit all of the commander's papers.

With files covering the floor and documents piling on top of the desk the small room could only be described as 'total chaos'.

A chair in front of the paper covered desk and a few book stands were the only visible furniture but it still managed to be more inviting than the cavernous space Gendo used to call an office.

"Commander... Here's the new report." she said trying not to step on important files.

"Oh don't worry about those." he said pointing at the several files Ritsuko was stepping on and taking the report from the blond woman's hands "So... the second child is awake..."

"Yes. She is well mentally, there are no brain damages." the blond stopped and kept on going remembering what was written on the report "There is a problem however... her physical wounds, thanks to her high synch ratio, caused permanent nerve damage. Her right arm is incapable of sending nervous feedback to her brain."

"Meaning?" Fuyutsuki was an intellectual man but neurological medicine was never his forte.

"Her brain can send the order for the arm and hand to do what they have to do, but she won't be able to feel anything there... She won't be able to measure how much strength she uses or feel pain at all."

"How is that bad? The lack of pain might be useful."

"That depends, but she can also get her arm ripped off without knowing. Not to mention she might end up breaking things when she puts too much pressure or not enough on her hand."

"Would that have secondary effects if she were to pilot an Evangelion?"

"I'm afraid so. Evas work based on the nervous system, she feels what the Eva feels and the Eva does what her nerves tell it to do. If the Eva can't send feedback its whole right arm becomes useless."

"Wait. She can send orders so she should be able-"Fuyutsuki never got a chance to finish his logic as the blond scientist kept on going.

"The Eva sends feedback after every action so that the pilot knows when the action is complete, like a real body, as you are aware. But if she cannot accept the feedback the Eva's arm just keeps on doing what it was last ordered to do, basically stuck on a loop."

"I see... So will she be useful in Project Amrita?"

"I don't see why not. Rei managed to fight with only one arm and so did Shinji against Zeruel. We can have the right arm of Evangelion Unit 02 removed."

"Do it."

"Yes sir."

xxx

"...And so we were transferred to the Damoncles where we are living an Angel-free life thanks to your efforts Asuka."

Asuka had stopped listening to the lavender haired woman long ago. Her physical wounds hurt, but they couldn't even come close to the pain of having her pride stolen from her yet again. In her head the fiery redhead had labeled her defeat at the hands of the Eva Series as her greatest humiliation, not until now did she realize how right she was.

The invincible Shinji had done it again, where she had failed he had succeeded, no matter how much she tried he still managed to surpass her. Years of specialized training in piloting Evangelions surpassed in a matter of months by a boy who would rather be playing the cello... Whenever she failed he managed to be there to save the day and make sure she remembered that no matter how much she tried he would always surpass her...

"..oh and-" Misato never got to finish what she was saying as Asuka stopped reliving the times that the shy boy had managed to mock her hard work.

"I want to see him."

"What!" the major was looking pale as she wore an expression of disbelief.

"Can't I see him?" she did not care about how her guardian was feeling, Misato wasn't the one who had to suffer humiliation upon humiliation, so the redhead kept on pushing.

"No, of course you can... I-it's just that you must be tired, after all, you just woke up Asuka and I'm sure your body i-"

"I am fine... I want him to come and visit me." her body was the least of her concerns, the doctor made sure she understood how badly it was damaged... No, what she wanted now... What she needed now was to see Shinji.

"I... I'll go call him..."

Dragging herself out the door Misato looked like a woman that was just sentenced to death, and Asuka was left alone in her room looking out the window at the pouring water...

_'I hate the rain.'_ she thought as the memory of her encounter with Arael started flooding her mind.

xxx

"Sorry to keep you waiting, here's your tea Rei-chan." with a smile the young boy offered the albino a cup of tea and sat down on the opposite end of the table.

"Thank you Shinji-kun."

Shinji was about to enjoy his tea with the beautiful albino but he never got the chance as the phone started ringing, getting up the young pilot picked up the phone while Rei waited patiently for him to start eating.

"Katsuragi Residence."

"I already told you didn't I? It's Katsuragi _and_ Ikari Residence."

"Misato-san."

"Listen Shinji-kun, you have to come to the hospital... Asuka is awake and she asked for you."

"..."

"Shinji-kun?"

xxx

Rei at first didn't really understand why Shinji had wanted to go home, walking in the rain wasn't really a problem for her, however she liked the way things were right now.

The albino never considered her routine boring, usually she would walk alone to her house after school, take a shower and then she would either rest or read a book until it was time for her to eat again.

But now she wasn't home, she wasn't resting or reading, she was enjoying a small meal with Shinji and she admitted that it was much better than her usual routine... Compared to this her routine was actually... boring.

_'I hope we can do this again...' _the corners of her mouth curved up slightly as she smiled at that idea.

"Misato-san." Rei was brought back from her thoughts by Shinji who was apparently talking with the major.

Suddenly the young boy's calm expression changed into one of shock as he stood there staring blankly at the wall, anyone could see that something had disturbed him.

"Yes I'm still here, I'll be right over... Okay." his voice was much weaker and he seemed to be getting pale. He hang up the phone and turned to Rei.

"Rei-chan, Asuka is awake I have to go the hospital-"

"I will accompany you."

"Really?" he asked, trying to seem calm, however she could see him begging with his eyes for her to go with him so Rei nodded, and the boy seemed to relax immensely " Okay then, Misato-san called for a taxi so we didn't have to walk there."

_'The rain stopped...'_

xxx

Entering the room Misato saw Asuka staring outside the window, she had expected the redhead to explode as soon as she heard how Shinji had saved everyone again, but instead she just sat there quietly listening to everything she said and in the end asked to see him.

The major knew that just because Asuka reacted a little different than she had been expecting didn't mean that the war was over. When Shinji arrived she could only imagine what was going to happen, Asuka would insult him while trying to burn holes into him with her eyes and blame everything that happened on him.

Shinji was used to getting bullied by the German girl, the problem wasn't the name calling or the mean looks... The problem was that Shinji more than anyone else blamed himself for what happened to her and as soon as she figured that out she would break the already fragile boy.

"He's on his way."

The Red Devil slowly looked in her direction and then continued staring outside not paying attention to Misato, it was obvious what the girl was waiting for, it almost looked like she was saving her strengths.

"And I want you to stay calm."

At that the redhead seemed to react as she focused her attention on the major.

"I am calm Misato-"

"No buts no explanations no nothing!" the major knew there was nothing she could do to stop the redhead from talking with the boy and she knew that Asuka wouldn't be calm when she did talk to Shinji unless she intervened. "I am not telling you to be happy, and I am not telling you that you don't have a right to be angry about what happened to you, I am just telling you to calm down before you talk to him."

"Like I said I am calm..."

xxx

"Shinji-kun, you seem agitated... calm down." he heard Rei's soft voice next him.

"I am calm..." the young boy took a deep breath and reached for the doorknob.

_'As calm as I can be anyways...'_

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Chapter 06 done.

Now this was the first time I took so long making a chapter because now I am no longer on vacations and also because it was actually hard to put the emotion I wanted into it and I gotta say, I still feel like I failed miserably... You be the judge.

Not explosive enough? Well this chapter was never meant to be explosive, I'm saving that for the next one. This was more about Misato, trying to smooth things up and Asuka figuring out what happened and how it happened.

Plus I got Rei in a cute blue summer dress! Oh and I developed her friendship with Shinji a little... Yeah that too...

So thanks to the OST of Soul Eater for the inspiration!

And thank you all who keep reading my little story it means a lot to me!


	7. Confrontation With The Devil Pt2

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion

**Chapter 07**

**Confrontation With The Devil Part 2**

_'Turn the knob, open the door and walk in.'_

Even a small child could do that, however Shinji found himself paralyzed, unable of performing the simplest of tasks. This was one of those situations... No matter how he looked at it he couldn't find a way out, he couldn't find a way to run away.

Sure he could just turn around and run for the hills... In fact that idea was starting to sound like a pretty attractive plan. The only reason for him to reject it was standing next to him, patiently waiting for him to calm down... Supporting him.

Rei had been there the whole time quietly waiting. That was actually quite impressive, he had been there for so long that anyone that stood around to watch would think the young boy was admiring the white door in front of him.

And he kind of was... Shinji liked that door. It was old-fashioned, it had a doorknob instead of the more advanced doors which featured an opening panel next to them. Holding the knob made him nervous but at the same time gave him something to hold onto. In a way it was one of the thing that was keeping him there.

_'Turn the knob, open the door and walk in.'_

His hand wasn't where it was supposed to be, he had let go of the doorknob...

He turned his head slightly to his escort and saw the usual stoic expression Rei always presented. It had become easier for him to see her true feelings, but right now his own emotions weren't allowing him to see much of anything.

"Shinji-kun," the angelical voice of the young albino reached him as their eyes met "You seem agitated... Calm down."

"I am calm..." pulling strength from the gentle words of the blue haired girl Shinji once again grabbed the knob squeezing it as hard as he could.

_'As calm as I can be anyways...'_

"Okay." turning the knob he gave the door a small push and took a step inside the room.

Shinji couldn't see for a second as rays of orange light hit him on the face, the entire room was covered in the setting sun's color... Once his eyes adjusted Shinji proceeded to examining his surroundings.

It was a small room, it featured a small window to the left of the bed where there were several machines and a cabinet, the room was nearly empty... There wasn't anything particularly interesting about the room itself, except for its occupants.

Leaning next to the window frame was the beautiful lavender haired major. She saw Shinji and flashed him an encouraging smile. Despite Misato's tired look and questionable behavior in the past her presence still managed to brighten up Shinji's mood.

And siting on the hospital's white bed was the fiery redhead. The German girl seemed too distracted looking outside the small window to notice him but her presence alone still managed to intimidate the pilot of Unit 01. Under Asuka's angel-like looks there were tons of explosives that could detonate in a blink of an eye, he had seen it happen before and it wasn't pretty...

It had been a while since Shinji had seen her, the last time he was near her... He didn't want to remember it; she was still comatose and he wasn't thinking straight. After the EVA Series incident he had been asleep for a week, and when he woke up she was isolated, so he wasn't allowed anywhere near her.

"A-Asuka..."

Misato was starting to look extremely uncomfortable while the redhead looking relatively calm examined him.

She wasn't yelling or screaming, and that kind of freaked him out. Shinji was expecting an explosive reaction, instead he was greeted by silence, which was both disturbing a rare, Asuka wasn't a quiet person, heck she was the exact opposite of quiet! This was new, and Shinji couldn't tell if it was good or bad.

He gulped, the redhead hadn't said a single word for what seemed like hours to Shinji, but her eyes never left him, and because of that he could hardly breath, afraid that if he moved the German girl would attack him... That idea was nonsense of course, Asuka was obviously in no shape to do such a thing, but that didn't stop him from imagining it.

Seeing Asuka hurt like that was taking its tool on the young boy, her right arm enveloped in bandages and the rest of her body clearly wounded... The guilt that had started to consume him after he left the hospital was returning, now fueling his fear of her, his fear of facing her.

Still silently watching the boy Asuka was being passive in the same way a mine field was passive, it wasn't attacking him per say, but one wrong move and all hell would break lose.

_'I-I have to say something!'_

The redhead wasn't talking and he was starting to get even more nervous. In his hurry to end the discomfort of the silence Shinji's self-defense mechanism kicked in. Unfortunately the boy forgot that of all people Asuka seemed to be the one who hated it the most.

"Asuka... I-I'm so sorry if I was there earlier..." apologizing was always a good way to end confrontations, he had spent his life trying to avoid hurtful situations, and apologizing was always a fast and effective way out, it worked. With most people...

Asuka looked at Shinji like she was looking at a person who hit her with an extremely blunt object, the words of the young boy didn't seem to make her happy at all. Suddenly Shinji found himself wishing he had just kept his mouth shut.

xxx

_'How dare he say that? If he was there?'_

Asuka had been studying the pilot of Unit 01, somehow she figured that he would look different. But in the end it was only Shinji... Even after surpassing her one final time and saving the world it was still the same shy and weak Shinji, so what gave him the right to act all high and mighty?

"Of course! If the Invincible Baka-Shinji were there all would be good as he would have saved not only the day but me too!" the redhead scowled and threw a death glare at her fellow pilot "And that was _sarcasm_ in case you didn't notice!"

"Asuka, i-it's not like... It's not like that at all..." the voice of the young boy seemed to be failing him, nothing seemed to give the German more pleasure than watching the boy who had constantly humiliated her struggle to talk.

"Oh no? Then why don't you share some of your wisdom with us oh great one?" Asuka could understand what he meant, it wasn't hard. Anyone that looked at Shinji now could see the guilt on his face, and that was what pissed her off, it was almost as if he was mocking her, blaming himself for her failure... It was basically the same as telling her that if he wasn't around she was bound to fail.

"I... I just wanted to apologi-"

"Apologize for what? For being an idiot? Or Were You Just Pointing Out That I Just Can't Seem To Win A Battle Without Your Help?" her objective was to disturb him, to break him; but instead she found herself losing control over her own voice.

"No. Of course not..."

He was one of the few chosen ones, and now that he had taken her title he was the best Evangelion pilot. Someone like that was someone she could respect, someone she would fight with teeth and nails to surpass, but definitely someone she would respect...Yet he acted like that, like a scared little puppy.

She still remembered when she was officially the best pilot. It was like she was the greatest person in the world, and in fact she was! The best of the chosen ones... The best in the whole world.

She was sure, however, that Shinji would give her the title of the best if he could, if he could he would stay home playing the cello crying because 'papa' didn't love him enough. That was why being surpassed by him, having her title stolen by him was so painful, so humiliating. Because in the end...

_'He doesn't even care about it.'_

"You Know What? In The End It Was Your Fault! _**ALL**_ OF IT! It's your fault I lost, it's your fault I'm hurt... IT'S YOUR FAULT MY RIGHT ARM IS LIKE THIS!-"

"That's enough!"

xxx

Misato knew that the breaking point was coming, Asuka was about to go nuclear on Shinji and the young pilot of Unit 01 was well beyond his limits. Since he saw Asuka he had been looking paler, every word that came out the mouth of the redhead seemed to hit him harder, after she accused him of being the culprit behind this entire situation... She could only see those same eyes, the eyes she saw when he was about to leave the apartment and go away from Tokyo 3 forever.

The major knew Asuka wasn't one to throw away her pride, and that was one of the reasons why she allowed this little meeting to happen, Asuka would never admit that the fact she was hurt was because of Shinji, that would be like admitting that she _needed _his help. Apparently she was wrong, the fiery redhead was really going to throw her pride away just so she could crush Shinji's spirit.

"Don't get in the way Misato!"

"Asuka, you're hurt, you have been panting for a w-"

"_**SHUT UP!**_" the redhead cringed from the pain that hit her from shouting like that, and Shinji took a few steps back looking genuinely scared. "Tell me why-"

Still hurt from her previous outburst the beautiful German girl needed to take a small pause "-Should he have everything?"

"Shinji-kun doesn't-"

"Then why is he going to school enjoying life unharmed and I'm stuck in this hospital bed, with pain and permanent damage in some parts of my body? Why did he slaughter the EVA Series and I fell at their hands? Why does he have the highest Synchronization Ration with a few months practice, and I, who have dedicated years of my life training, am second to him!" the redhead gave another menacing look to Shinji "I am the best... So Why?"

"Asu-"

"**What... The Hell... **_**IS THAT**_**?**" with a scream that, no doubt, could be heard from the other side of the hospital Asuka ignored her wounds, and pointed her finger at whatever was behind the young pilot of Unit 01.

Standing behind the blue eyed boy was a blue haired young girl, Rei. She had apparently entered with Shinji but stood a few inches behind the boy, no one noticed her presence until now, simply because Asuka's eyes never once left Shinji, the young pilot of Unit 01 was focused on being scared of the redhead and Misato was too busy waiting for the explosion that was bound to come.

Rei didn't seem phased by the massive shriek that Asuka produced and just continued to blankly stare at the German girl.

"Rei." Misato knew it was surprising to see the albino there but it wasn't enough reason for Asuka to freak out like that.

"Rei-chan." Shinji turned to face the beautiful albino and her crimson eyes focused on him telling him he had her full attention. "I thought you were going to wait outs-"

"w-What's the meaning... of this?" the redhead finally seemed to feel the pain from her previous actions and so she seemed to have calmed down.

"I'm sorry I forgot to mention Rei-chan was coming wit-" Shinji found himself once again interrupted by the fiery redhead who seemed oddly irritated with the presence of the albino.

"I... Wait, Rei-chan?" Asuka seemed taken aback for a second but before the major could make sure of what had crossed the mind of the beautiful redhead she had regained her 'angry mask' "I mean... WHY IS WONDERGIRL WEARING MY CLOTHES?"

Misato figured there was definitely something different about the albino but now that Asuka mentioned it Rei was wearing a light blue summer dress. It was impossible to tell if it was Asuka's since the major had never seen the redhead wear anything that wasn't either red, orange or yellow, except for the school uniform.

The albino seemed to have nothing else to wear except for her school uniform it was actually nice to see her wear something different for once. She actually looked cute in it.

_'Dammit focus Misato, this is bad!'_

The German girl was fuming with rage, and Misato knew that if the situation was bad before now it was catastrophic. The only possible action from now on was damage control and Misato always sucked at it.

"W-Well hmm... You see-"

"Oh I see alright, I see that she's wearing my clothes... What's the meaning of this? Is she living in my room too?" Asuka's words were a burning mixture of hatred and desperation, Misato didn't know why the redhead hated the albino so much or why she leaped to that conclusion, but whatever the reason Asuka was reaching her breaking point faster than Shinji.

_'Damage control, damage control!'_

"Of course not, Asuka calm down, I'm sure there's a-"

"I am merely using the garments Shinji-kun provided for me."

_'Rei why couldn't you just be quiet like you always are?'_

"What?" the redhead seemed to tired to continue growling and screeching but her voice still carried a threatening tone.

Misato couldn't believe what was happening, everything that could go wrong was going wrong, it was like a massive plot to make the situation ten times worse than it already was.

"Asuka, it's not w-what you think! It was raining and Rei's clothes got wet so... I had to find something for her to wear..."

Well at least that explained the why of this situation... But Misato doubted Asuka would just leave it at that. And wrong she was not.

"And so you decided to give that damn _**doll**_ my clothes!" even though Asuka didn't know, she actually hit a nerve and the major was tired of being useless, this situation was escalating, she needed to put a stop to it.

"Asu-"

"Asuka!"

That was unexpected in so many levels that Misato wondered where that sound came from, surely it wasn't Rei... Shinji perhaps?

"I'll make sure I put it where it was so-"

xxx

It was indeed an interesting interaction, although she didn't particularly enjoyed the way the pilot of Unit 02 was acting towards Shinji.

Rei was surprised that Unit 02's pilot only noticed her now, but that was of no interest to her so she just ignored her accusations and loud protests answering what she saw fit.

What really interested her was Shinji's reaction, the young boy had reacted when pilot Soryu called her a doll... She didn't know how that was significant but for some reason she felt that her friendship with the boy was... stronger... due to that.

xxx

"Don't even bother putting it back, now that she's wearing it..." the German girl looked away from the boy "I don't want it dammit!"

Asuka was beyond irritated, she was so pissed that for some reason she couldn't yell anymore, she couldn't find the strengths to do it. Maybe it was because her body was wounded or maybe it was because of that doll... That Wondergirl.

Another thing that managed to get under her skin was seeing the doll was alright too... She was like a cockroach, no matter how bad things got for her or everyone else she would just get up and walk it off with her damn expressionless face.

Shinji was looking at her with an expression of disbelief while Rei quietly watched as the events unfolded in front of her.

"Shinji, Rei get out please."

Asuka turned to see a very serious Misato pointing at the door. Rei followed her instructions like a robot but Shinji who had been looking like he wanted to run for the hills ever since he got inside the room hesitated before he left.

Asuka and Misato watched as the door slowly closed behind the young boy and the redhead finally decided to ask why the major kicked them out.

"What the hell do you want?" only now did she realize how much she had pushed her body, pain was coming in slow waves and every single part of her body was screaming, except for her right arm of course.

"Asuka, I don't know what you hoped to accomplish by bringing Shinji here today..." _'Humiliation? Pain? Despair?'_ she thought. It didn't really matter though, either way she couldn't bring any of those upon the pilot of Unit 01 the best she did was scare him... maybe. "But I'd say you only managed to hurt yourself and your relationship with everyone."

"I don't give a crap about that!" why should she give a crap about Wondergirl, the marvelous cello boy or the drunkard? "In the end it was your fault."

Misato looked at her surprised, she didn't seem to understand what Asuka was saying.

"I'd rather be dead. If you didn't take that moron to Eva 01 then I wouldn't have to go through this humiliation, through this hell. I hate you, I hate every single one of you-"

Asuka was trying to figure out what had happened but her burning cheek soon gave her the answer. "What the hell do you think your doing! Hitting a wounded person..."

Misato came closer to the bed and Asuka looked at her pissed and wondering what she wanted. Was she going to cough up a speech to tell her how much her actions were dumb and how what she said to Rei and Shinji was horrible? Or was she going to say how great the Invincible Baka-Shinji was and that she shouldn't bother him anymore?

Suddenly the lavender haired woman wrapped her arms around her neck and her shoulders started to move up and down in a rhythmic way while she quietly sobbed. She was... crying?

"You idiot... Don't say that ever again..."

"M-Misato?" she was enjoying the hug, not that she would ever admit it, it was nice to feel the warmth of the major, she wasn't there as Nerv's major or as the usual drunkard that lived in the same apartment as her... She was there as the guardian who cared about her...

"I'm sorry."

"Where's Kaji?" that simple question seemed to send a shock up the major's body, Asuka knew it was probably not the moment to be asking that, but Misato's apology was something she didn't know how to react to, and she did want to find out what happened to the scruffy man.

Misato slowly emerged from the hug with her face drenched in tears and her eyes red. She looked at the German for a while and then she closed her eyes and slowly shook her head.

It was funny, Asuka always thought she would react differently to that... Instead of crying and yelling about how the manliest man of men died without confessing his raging love for her Asuka simply looked at Misato secretly wanting for the lavender haired woman to hug her again.

And as if reading her mind Misato gently pressed herself against the marred body of the young German girl enveloping her again in a hug.

xxx

_'It's already dark...'_

It had been a while since the major had instructed Shinji and Rei to leave her alone with Asuka. Shinji could only wonder what they were talking about in there.

He felt tired... and guilty. Despite Misato's attempts to contain Asuka's outbursts what she said was true, it was all his fault, if he hadn't shut down, if he hadn't... if he _had_ gone to Eva 01 as soon as he could then perhaps everything would be alright...

Rei who had been quiet the whole time was standing next to Shinji staring blankly at the moon. It was hard for him to tell what was going through her mind at the moment, but she seemed content with something.

And again Shinji felt the need to thank the girl, if it weren't for her he wouldn't have been able to face this situation. The pilot of Unit 01 knew how he always reacted under pressure. Since Shinji became an Eva pilot, and he started his life with his makeshift family and friends he had become a little better at facing his troubles, but in the end if there was chance for him to turn his back and escape his problems he would take it.

Slowly the door of Asuka's room opened and Misato looking tired came out.

xxx

It had been a long day... Misato was still surprised how everything happened so fast, Shinji woke up a week after the incident and Asuka followed only three days later. The major didn't wish for Asuka to stay unconscious for longer but she admitted that it would have been nice to have more time to get ready.

In a way the lavender haired woman felt useless, she made sure that she would stay there during the meeting so she could witness the events and so that she could prevent the worse from happening, yet she was not capable of doing anything...

Sighing Misato looked around for the two teenagers and found Shinji waiting for her while Rei with her usual stoic expression looked ooutside the window at the moon.

"Shin-chan... How are you feeling?"

Misato always thought that Asuka's relationship with Shinji was deeper than what they let on, Shinji probably didn't even realize it but the fiery redhead saw in him a great friend, and now she was feeling betrayed by her friend that had surpassed her and, in her eyes, left her behind. That much was clear when the major saw her reaction to Rei's presence.

"I'm okay Misato-san... Thanks."

"How about you Rei? Are you alright?"

"I am... unharmed."

Misato couldn't help but chuckle at that answer, the beautiful albino probably didn't understand the nature of the question but it was nice to see that she was not upset... Even if she were upset the major doubted she would be able to tell, but Rei would probably been even more quiet so she assumed right now she was just 'regular quiet'.

From what Misato could tell this little meeting had no serious damage, however Shinji had a mask that she just couldn't seem to get through. It was truly hard to see the boy's real feelings when he always acted sweetly towards her, even when she drank herself to hell and back he greeted her in the morning with a smile. The major wasn't entirely sure if he hated that side of hers, but he never once complained...

In a way they were very much the same, they both had father issues, they both tried to bury their emotions under a similar mask... the major wondered why the sudden psychoanalysis and decided to dismiss it as soon as she realized Shinji and Rei were starting to look at her funny.

_'Okay, cheer up mode ON!'_

"Anyways! It's already late so what do you say we go out for dinner Shinji-kun?"

"O-Okay... That sounds nice. But what about Rei-chan?"

"Well she can come with us! I'll drive you home later is that okay with you Rei?"

"That would be appreciated."

"Alright no objections then! Let's go!"

She would have to take Asuka for a dinner later, otherwise she would never hear the end of it.

xxx

The rest of the night went smoothly as the major took Shinji and Rei to a ramen shop where they had dinner. Shinji didn't seem too happy as he ate quietly, but who could blame him after what had happened? And what might still happen? Misato could only hope that the worse was over...

Rei acted like herself, quietly enjoying her vegetarian dinner and answering any questions the lavender haired woman threw her way. Until the major threw a few teasing remarks about her cute appearance, to this Shinji blushed and the albino gained a soft nearly nonexistent shade of pink around her cheeks. Misato actually thought the albino looked... Less 'emotionless' than usual.

After the somewhat enjoyable dinner Misato drove Rei to the ruins she called home and headed for the apartment.

xxx

Misato entered the small apartment and switched on the lights. Grabbing a beer from the fridge the lavender haired woman went to her room.

_'Ah... Home sweet home...'_

She started to remove her clothes. Throwing her red jacket to the floor and slwoly removing her bra Misato looked herself in the mirror, it was still there... Well of course it was, it was foolish to hope for it to just disappear into thin air... Brushing those thoughts aside she reached for her usual tank shirt and short shorts that were neatly folded inside one of the drawers.

_'Thank you Shin-chan.'_

Once dressed she headed outside her room to see to see Shinji grabbing his towel.

"Going to take a shower?"

"Yeah... I kind felt like I needed it you know, to 'wash the mind and soul'..."

Misato figured that she should say something, but she wasn't all that great with deep talk and she figured the young boy didn't need anymore of deep so she did the next best thing, something she figured would help him cheer up and get rid of the heavy mood "Okay, just don't forget to give my underwear back!"

"W-w-what! I-i needed them f-for Rei!" and with that the young pilot headed for the bathroom blushing furiously.

_'Wash the body and soul huh? I guess I could use a bath too...'_

* * *

**Author's notes:** Dang it has been a while! I probably took longer making this chapter alone than most of the others together.

I have excuses! Due to lack of time I can only write so much. It's annoying for me because I would love to have all the time I had during my vacations but oh well... So I might take a little longer with new chapters from now on. Though I'll do my best to make them fast.

Also this chapter wasn't exactly easy to write, I really had a hard time... I had the idea thought up long ago but I never thought it would be this hard... And I still feel like I screwed up!

I am just not an emotional person. For example I have problems talking with people who are hurt, because I am often cold about injuries... And that my friends was why I had so much difficulty here.

Thanks to the epic OST of Evangelion 2.0 for it's awesomeness.

And thank you all who keep reading my story it really means the world to good old me!


	8. Important Question

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion.

**Chapter 08**

**Important Question**

A week went by and things were finally starting to settle down, Shinji visited Asuka everyday and gave her his home made lunches even though the redhead told him she didn't want to see him, the lavender haired woman knew that deep down she probably enjoyed the attention from her fellow pilot. It was obvious to Misato that Asuka still felt like the pilot of Unit 01 betrayed her. Shinji was unharmed and he surpassed her in the one thing that kept her going; and that kind of pain was what hurt the redhead the most, the major figured it would be a while until things started to stabilize.

What happened couldn't be healed in a single week, and it was pretty obvious that Shinji wasn't very happy, the boy still blamed himself. And even though Asuka refused to admit that Shinji would have saved her she still felt left behind, Rei however seemed to be doing fine, not that Misato saw her much though.

The lavender haired beauty sighed, why did they have to be so complicated?

"Major, you look pretty tired, why don't we go out for a drink later?" Garson who had been hoovering around her ever since she got back to work was really getting on her nerves, the man just wouldn't let go, he reminded her of Kaji and that only made her angrier.

"Didn't I say this before? Refused! Rejected! GOODBYE!" storming off the major left Garson in one of the crowded hallways of Damoncles.

_'The guy just doesn't know when to quit!'_ she thought as she pressed the button to the elevator.

It took a while but the wretched thing finally arrived. She really hated the elevators of Damoncles, the interior was too snobby.

There were several reasons why she didn't like them but the main thing was the floor, it had the symbol of Damoncles painted on it, whenever the major looked down she was greeted by the blue Pegasus and the massive yellow winged sword that stood behind the horse.

It was actually quite beautiful, but it still looked too... needless, Nerv used to have it's mark on some of its property but not something like that.

In many ways Damoncles could be considered 'a pain', for starters it was right in the middle of the ocean, she had to drive for one hour before she arrived at the damn place, and thanks to that the major who was never good at waking up early found herself getting up everyday before her ward. Shinji always left Misato her lunch but she still missed eating breakfast with him.

The defensive station went deep underwater, this was very useful to store weapons and artillery but it made the whole thing too cramped. It was like a skyscraper, thin and long, with the sudden increase of staff transferred from Nerv, people just wouldn't stop complaining.

Once again the major sighed, she had to look after Shinji and Asuka, work in a place that made it hard for her to run away from captain charming and she still needed to deal with the runaway member of SEELE.

In spite of being a member of an influential organization that planned to destroy the world Misato doubted a single man could be of any threat to Damoncles, specially since all of SEELE's connections were already dealt with.

The heavy doors of the elevator finally opened and Misato darted out before the crazy flock of people crushed her against the back of the elevator as they tried to get in it.

"Conference room 013... 013..." her eyes scanned the hallway for a while until Misato finally gave up _'I think I'm lost...'_

"Major! What are you doing here? Come on you'll be late!" Misato turned around to find the beautiful computer technician Maya Ibuki looking at her with a frown.

"Maya-chan! Sorry I'm kind of lost." the major produced a nervous laugh and bowed her head in apology.

"Geez, sempai said you had a lousy sense of orientation but this is too much! Conference room 013 is just down the hall." she said proudly.

"How did you know where I'm supposed to be at?"

"You said it out loud, besides, I'm heading there myself, Mr. Hirano is sick so I'm going to fill in for him." that explained why Maya was so proud of herself, the girl loved when she was assigned with important tasks. "So let's go major! I don't want to be late!"

"Okay, okay!"

xxx

The redhead was having a terrible day, just a few minutes ago she woke up from her regular nightmares that involved the pigeon-looking Evas, and now she was hearing the same crummy speech again.

"Living with nervous damage isn't a walk in the park, I really think you should reconsider this." the old foreign doctor was at it again, everyday the old man just waltzed in her room and started going on about nervous damage related topics, and right now the last thing she wanted to be reminded of was that her body is damaged.

"And again I say no. I'm already healthy enough to be discharged all I need is some painkillers and I'll be fine." Asuka could only thank Nerv medical technology, it was perfected so that the pilots never died before they completed their mission, and thanks to that she was getting better by the day, she was now fully capable of talking and moving without intense pain.

"Physical therapy will help you with your righ-" unfortunately for Asuka the old man didn't seem like he was about to quit so she threw him a death glare that made him shut up.

"You said I can still move it, I only won't be able of feeling so I don't see what's the problem." before he could come up with something Asuka decided to finish the conversation, she didn't wish to be annoyed any longer "And I am leaving tomorrow, that is final. So would you kindly... GET **OUT**!"

The old man had gotten used to Asuka's loud nature so he just admitted defeat and left the room.

The last week had been really exhausting for her, Hikari nearly blasted her way through the door when Misato told the freckled girl what had happened to Asuka and the major came around whenever she had time tying to act all happy, then there was Shinji, he came over all the time with puppy eyes and food...

Two soft knocks on the door warned the redhead that it was time for the idiot to come. She would never admit it but it actually... pleased her that he came everyday.

"Come in." the door slowly opened and a scared looking Baka-Shinji entered the small room carrying his usual peace offering.

"How are you feeling?" the same old question, she was starting to wonder why he kept on asking it.

"Fine!" Asuka barked at the pilot of Unit 01.

"I made bacon and eggs today, I know it's more Western so I thought you'd like it..." she saw the little box and couldn't help but try and take a closer look at it, despite being an idiot and a weakling Shinji was a great cook and she loved to eat the food he made for her.

"I see. So what do I owe the honor of your presence today?" she knew it was a stupid thing to say every time Shinji dropped by, but he could never answer her without stuttering and that was always enjoyable to watch.

"N-no... honor? I-i just came to visit..." clearly uncomfortable he bowed his head "I'm sorry."

"Japanese will never make sense to me why do you keep apologizing?" Asuka saw Shinji looking at her and she knew he was about to talk, but she shot his apology down "Don't apologize again!"

"..."

"..."

"So?" Shinji raised an eyebrow at her and the redhead sighed "Why are you here? Why do you keep coming? I'm sure you and Wondergirl should be out there riding a bicycle at sunset or something."

"What? I-I wanted to visit you... B-because it must be l-lonely here..." he nervously answered blushing at her remarks, and that annoyed her, how did things get like that?

Sure Asuka had noticed something more going on between them after the battle with Armisael but at that time she had more things to worry about than their weirdness, like her synch ration that was going down the toilet. She never thought that the emotionless doll named Rei would actually open up to anyone...

When Hikari visited her and told her about how Shinji was depressed when he returned to school Asuka assumed this was because the idiot blamed himself for her current state, but then Hikari started babbling about how the doll and Shinji were getting close 'again'.

That 'again' triggered a great amount of questions, since she hadn't been paying attention to the albino and Shinji after the fight with the 16th angel she never knew they had gotten close.

So she asked Hikari to elaborate about what she knew, and she was surprised to know that Shinji and the Rei were pretty close just before the seventeenth angel attacked, and then something happened. Her best friend didn't know what had happened though.

Whatever was happening between them Asuka didn't like it for some reason, and thinking about it sure as hell didn't brighten her mood up.

"Whatever... I'm being discharged later, and I guarantee that if I find anything missing from my room I will make you curse god for being born!" she threatened him "You better not have given Wondergirl anymore of my stuff!"

"N-no! I already put the summer dress back..." he said nervously.

"Whatever... So are you staying around until Misato comes to pick me up?" Asuka knew Hikari was too busy to visit her today and she didn't really want to stay alone... She didn't want to feel lonely, never would she admit that to that idiot though.

"Huh... yes?"

"What the hell are you saying? Don't answer my question with another question!" was he that much of an idiot? Couldn't he even answer a simple question?

"I mean... if you wan-" Asuka threw him a menacing glare, no way was he going to ask what she thought he was going to ask "Yes."

"..." Silence filled the room for a moment while Asuka finally opened and started eating Shinji's little peace offering.

"It's not bad..."

"Huh?" the boy looked at her confused and Asuka pointed at the small box.

"The food you idiot." actually the food was delicious, Shinji was a master chef after all, he could even make bacon and eggs taste divinely.

xxx

"From the look on your face I assume you didn't know about this." the new commander was in one of the lowest levels of the UN secret prison, Sub-Level 29, and in front of him stood the former commander of Nerv shackled to the bars of his cell.

"Are these accurate?" he asked removing his gaze from the papers Fuyutsuki gave him.

"I'm afraid so, apparently SEELE was aiming higher than we thought." Fuyutsuki examined his old 'friend' and saw him wearing a bright white jumpsuit and a small collar with the letters 'SS+'.

It was a system used so that the guards knew what kind of prisoner he was; a class SS+ was the most dangerous kind. Not that they needed that kind of system, Gendo was already sealed in a cell inside a massive vault-like room guarded by eight guards 24/7.

"I see." the bearded man pinched the bridge of his nose sighing "So, do you need anything from me? Or are you just here to let me know this?"

"Suggestions?" despite Gendo's character he was a brilliant man and the new commander could use some more brain power.

"I believe my methods are considered unorthodox." Gendo replied sitting down on his bed.

"Well, only when you're trying to destroy the world." Fuyutsuki smiled at the younger man "I think now they would be appreciated."

"Mind telling me how Rei and the pilot of Unit 01 are doing first?"

Fuyutsuki was surprised to hear that, Gendo wasn't one to care about the doll he created for his scenario or the son he neglected for years.

Although Ikari once told him that Shinji would get hurt if he kept him near him, he didn't really understand what he meant by that, the boy was already hurt... Now Fuyutsuki wondered if his words had a different meaning.

"That's unusual for you, caring about anyone else than Yui." Fuyutsuki saw the glare he was receiving from Gendo and decided he would leave the jokes for later "Ayanami was allowed to live despite the... less natural way she was born. As for your son, he's healthy and well."

"I see."

xxx

_'Dammit I'm late!' _Misato ran until she reached Asuka's room.

She was surprised to hear Asuka was already being discharged, the German girl was tough but the major doubted she would be fine already.

And the truth was that, like Misato predicted, the young German wasn't fully healed, she was well enough to leave the hospital but her wounds were still present and she would still be in pain if she didn't take some kind of painkillers, then there was the nerve damage, the doctor warned that the Asuka would need to adapt to her situation.

The major yelled at the doctor for discharging a patient that wasn't fully healed yet, however she was informed that Asuka would leave even if they refused to discharge her. Those were the times where she hated the redhead's stubborn character.

"Sorry, sorry I'm late!" the major found Asuka already dressed, although she still had some bandages on her right arm she seemed to be in pretty good shape. Shinji was there too, holding a plastic cup filled with water.

"Yeah we noticed!" the major was greeted by the usual bark and saw Asuka throwing one of her death glares her way "Hey you! Don't just stand there, give me my water!"

_'Wow, Shinji-kun is here huh? Maybe they're finally getting along better...'_ she thought smiling at the idea of a happy Shinji and a less irritated Asuka.

"Ah... Sorry I forgot. Here." Shinji passed the plastic cup to the redhead and she crushed it spilling water all over the blue eyed pilot and herself.

"Asuka! What are..." Misato was about to scold the German, she thought Asuka had done that on purpose to get Shinji wet, but when she saw the redhead staring blankly at her right hand, she realized what had happened "Asuka, are you okay?"

"Why...?" the German looked at the boy and then at Misato "What happened? I just reached for the glass like I usually do..."

The doctor was clear about how hard it would be to deal with this kind of nervous damage, despite being able of sending orders to her arm she couldn't feel a thing and that made it hard to realize how much pressure she puts on her hand... Not enough and she would drop the glass, too much and she would smash it.

"Asuka, it's okay. It'll take you some time until you adapt to your new situation." the redhead looked at the major as if screaming for help but all Misato could do was look back at her "Come on, I think we should go home."

xxx

Rei stared blankly at the mirror in her bathroom, she was... lonely?

She had been feeling it for a while now, ever since she went with Shinji to the hospital. After the visit to the pilot of Unit 02 the blue eyed boy started having less time and spent his afternoons away at the hospital.

Rei never really had this problem, she was used to being alone, so why was this happening now? Why was she feeling like this? It was beyond her. Shinji was her friend, and she was his friend. Friendship; that was how she would classify their relationship, so it was only natural that they would enjoy each others company.

Rei looked at herself in the mirror and saw her crimson eyes stare right back at her.

His behavior remained the same at school... She couldn't demand more time from her friend, she would have to adapt. _'During school we have enough time...' _The albino continued to think that, however she wished to be selfish, she wanted more of his friendship.

The blue haired beauty gave up on trying to figure out the logic behind Shinji's current behavior, _'it would be best if I rested' _she thought before she headed for bed.

xxx

The ride back home was awkward, Misato wouldn't talk and Asuka just kept staring at her right hand like it was some kind of 'thing' that wasn't supposed to be there, and that made him feel like he was in hell, he was the reason her arm was like that, it was his fault.

Once inside Asuka seemed to finally come to her senses while Misato returned to her usual self, it was a relief for Shinji; he didn't know how to deal with a weird Misato and a quiet Asuka.

The redhead went about her business checking if all her stuff was in her room while Misato grabbed a beer and sat down at the dinner table.

"I'll start preparing dinner." he said nonchalantly.

"Wait! Asuka, Shin-chan, I have something important to talk to you, so before you prepare dinner," Misato said pointing at him, and then she pointed at Asuka "and you start with examining every square inch of your room we need to talk."

Asuka stared at the lavender haired beauty while Shinji found himself wonder what Misato had to say. The major pointed at the two seats in front of her so Shinji and Asuka quietly sat down.

"Well... Since the battle against the Angels is finally over you two now will have a normal life, and I waited until we were all together again so I could talk to you about something."

"Something, Something! Just get on with it and say it!" Asuka growled impatiently and Shinji just sighed at his fellow pilot's lack of patience.

"Okay, first Shinji-kun." the major said turning her attention to him "I'm sorry if it was a little impulsive but I kind of... Already sent the papers to adopt you."

Shinji was flabbergasted, out of nowhere Misato just told him she was going to adopt him... Although he wasn't that surprised to hear his guardian did something like that, Misato was excessively impulsive.

"If you're not okay with it I can-" the major was apparently uncertain that what she had done was according to Shinji's wishes so he decided to stop her before she could start having doubts.

"I'm happy you did that Misato-san..." and he really was, this way she would be his guardian officially, until now it was all done under the table so that he could pilot Unit 01, but now it was legal and she didn't just want him around because he was needed to pilot.

"Okay that's nice and all but what does it have to do with me, if you wanted to adopt the invincible Baka-Shinji you didn't need me present."

"Asuka calm down." Shinji looked at Asuka and saw her raise an eyebrow "I obviously couldn't just fill out the paperwork and send it in your case, that's why I need you here, I wanted to ask if you wish to stay here with us..."

Asuka was staring silently at the major as if still trying to understand what had happened.

"Well? What do you say Asuka?"

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I make no excuses I was just late.

I loved to write the part about Rei, I always wanted to write about her confusion when she is faced with a concept she didn't truly understand such as friendship! But that's just me.

Anyways this was supposed to be small which I assume makes this late upload even more annoying... Okay, now forgetting I screwed up my timing I believe ETA for the revival of the Evas and the start of the core of my plot will be 2 to 3 chapters. Meaning that within that time the poll for the pairing will be closing, so if you feel like it drop by and leave a final suggestion.

After I see the results I will make the choice for the pairing, I won't be choosing based on which gets more votes alone though so keep that in mind. And I wanted to thank everyone for the suggestions!

So, hard chapter? No, not at all.

Why the delay? Lack of time and laziness.

Thanks to the Soundtrack of Republic Commandos for the inspiration. And a big "thank you" to everyone who voted on the poll and left super reviews!


	9. Truth For Some Happiness for Others

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion.

**Chapter 09**

**Truth For Some Happiness For Others**

It was a stupid question. What the hell was Misato thinking anyway? Asking her if she wanted to be adopted, and the major had already adopted the idiot too... Or at least she had sent the papers.

She should have been able to answer the moment the lavender haired woman asked, after all it wasn't such a hard question... Yet the redhead found that she did not knew the answer. Did she wish to stay with the drunkard and the idiot? That idea was so ludicrous that it almost made her giggle.

Whatever the reason Asuka could not say it, she couldn't say no to Misato...

"I'm not in the mood for this now!" keeping her head low the redhead got up as fast as she could and darted across the small room towards her room leaving Shinji wondering what that was all about.

"Misato-san..." Shinji looked at the lavender haired major who, to his surprise, looked amazingly calm.

"I guess it was kind of my fault too... She just got out of the hospital, and let us not forget that Asuka has her pride." taking a sip from her beer the major smiled at Shinji "Don't worry, she'll give her answer when she feels ready. Now how about some dinner?"

Nodding Shinji went about his usual routine of cooking dinner for the two ladies of the house.

xxx

Ritsuko scowled at the supercomputers in front of her, no matter how much they worked it was impossible for them to supply the blond with what she wanted.

After trying to input new values in the machines for the umpteenth time Ritsuko finally gave up her efforts. It was impossible to understand something like an Evangelion with science, despite the fact that they were conceived by science there were still several variables that were a mystery to the scientist, even after studying the massive behemoths for years she still found herself surprised with what they could do...

Sitting back on her chair she stared blankly at the empty laboratory. It was just like any other high tech research facility, except the technology they had in there far surpassed any other in the world.

The Damoncles was not a researching facility, however most of Nerv's equipment was still operational, they only needed to fix a few broken pieces. After that the Damoncles was equipped with Nerv's original research technology.

"I wonder if we can really make this work with science alone?" sighing the blond reached for a cigaret and lit it "Maybe we should pray?"

Producing a cloud of smoke she examined the screen of the computers again, no matter how much she theorized and changed the values in the end she was always greeted with the same error message, she was used to it, as a scientist it wasn't rare to find something she couldn't understand... But it was still frustrating, and the fact that she was shut in that secret lab for days wasn't helping.

"I've seen that face a dozen times already doctor, still no success I presume?" startled by the voice Ritsuko almost jumped out of her chair, only to find the calm face of commander Fuyutsuki staring at her.

"Unfortunately it is as you said, no success so far..." putting her cigaret in the ashtray Ritsuko directed her attention to her superior "It's no surprise though, an Eva is something we simply cannot understand... Why does it go Berserk? Why does it reactivate with zero energy? We could never fully comprehend those phenomenons and I don't see us cracking this mystery either."

Fuyutsuki nodded at the doctor and walked towards her stopping behind her where he could see the screen that continued exhibiting the error message "I understand what you mean but we must try, this is something of great value... Specially in our current situation."

"I agree and I am trying but the truth is I could use some help sir." Ritsuko looked at the commander with hopeful eyes but she already knew it was impossible.

"I am sorry doctor Akagi but you and I both know if the reason behind this project came out the world would become chaotic, even more than it already is." Fuyutsuki leaned on the wall behind her "Only us and the higher ups in UN know what's about to happen... The pilots aren't even aware that they will once more carry the weight of the world on their shoulders."

"I understand, but sir, we should really tell them. I'll need to test this once it's ready." she stated not removing her eyes from the computer screen.

"All in its time, we still have some of that at least..."

xxx

She had not given Misato her answer, and thankfully the lavender haired major had not asked her for one yet. Asuka still found herself without knowing what she was going to say, why was it being so hard for her? It was simple, Asuka just needed to go to the major and tell her to the face that it was not her wish to waste any unnecessary time with them.

"Are you okay Asuka?" the redhead was brought back from her state of daze by her freckled friend who was looking at her with a worried expression "You seemed, I don't know... kind of off?"

"I'm fine, I was just thinking." she lied trying to look as normal as possible "Anyways what were you saying?"

As Hikari resumed her speech on how she had missed her and some friendly remarks about how Asuka looked as beautiful as always the redhead continued to wonder how she should face her current situation.

Usually Asuka would face any kind of problem or question with her trademark confidence and charm, but right now she was actually having a hard time with this... This morning everyone acted as normally as they could, Asuka thought Misato would start pressing her to give an answer but the major just teased Shinji who like always reacted like an idiot.

Shinji still acted awkward around her because he could 'save her'... But putting aside his God complex Asuka could tell he was interested in her answer, no doubt the idiot was just praying for her to leave so that he could resume his perfect little life without poor old crippled Asuka.

"Asuka! Are you alright!" Hikari's distressed call made Asuka once more return to the present.

"I'm fine! Why are you looking at me like that?" the class rep pointed down and Asuka saw blood trailing down her hand that was now balled into a fist "Ah... this? I just cut myself earlier. Let me just go clean it up I'll be right back." Hikari nodded hesitantly and Asuka slowly walked away from the school roof.

_'Dammit! Not again...'_ Asuka had put so much pressure in her fist that her nails had cut the palm of the hand _'I can't even feel myself scratching through my own flesh! DAMMIT!'_

"Soryu what are you doing here? The bell already rang." the redhead looked up to see her teacher looking at her curiously "You'll be late."

"Nothing, I was just taking a walk, I'll be right there." the old man nodded and went about his business.

"Tch..." scowling at the teacher Asuka decided to take care of her hand later.

The fiery redhead walked slowly towards the classroom being greeted by several boys and girls on her way, ever since she showed her face at school grounds earlier that morning everyone made sure to ask her how she was and ,of course, what was the reason behind her absence and that was definitely the last thing she wanted to be asked about.

Opening the classroom door she found that Hikari was already inside trying to keep the already bored students under control, how the freckled girl got there faster than her was a mystery to her... The teacher was still unpacking his books so Asuka took the chance and sat down.

"Rise!" everyone rose to the class rep's order "Bow!" following once again her order everyone bowed to the older man "Sit!"

Sitting back down Asuka saw Shinji and Rei exchanging some glances while Aida who seemed to be in his own world made strange spells towards them. _'What's with those two? It... REALLY! Pisses me off...'_ when did she start caring about that anyway? If they wanted to act all friendly and have Mr Mambo throw love spells it was up to them!

xxx

Shinji thought his first day at school with Asuka back would be rather scary, but thankfully the fiery redhead spent most of the day with Hikari, and thanks to that the pilot of Unit 01 spent the day without fear of being murdered.

Although Asuka didn't blame him for her defeat he could still feel the waves of hate flowing towards him. Since she had entered the classroom Shinji could swear she was trying to shoot lasers at him through her eyes.

He spent his breaks and lunchtime with Rei so he hadn't thought much about Asuka and the danger that she represented but now it was starting to come back to him. Shinji looked at Rei who was looking back at him, she seemed to take her time examining his face and soon after she returned her attention to the window.

With a low beeping tone coming from his computer the usual message appeared.

Request to join chat: KS Armada.

Shinji sighed and looked back to see Kensuke waving at him _'Well class doesn't seem to be very interesting today... I already have all the notes about Second Impact I possibly can.'_ pushing the button he accepted the invite.

**IShinji accepted invitation to join KS Armada.**

**IShinji:** What is it?

**SgtKen:** Aw... What's with that greeting? Upset I stopped your flirting with Ayanami?

Shinji looked flabbergasted at the laptop almost as if it had just turned into some kind of weird animal. Did it really look like they were flirting? Shinji couldn't even begin to consider that option, there were so many wrong things about it... It was best to just try and get Kensuke's dirty mind off of that topic.

**IShinji: **So if you're done with the jokes could you let me pay attention? The teacher said this was exam material.

**SgtKen:** Pfft! Yeah right, that teacher always talks about the same thing! I don't think anyone pays attention to him anymore.

Well, it was true wasn't it? All the teacher talked about was Second Impact, maybe some kind of trauma? Whatever the reason no one paid attention to the man anymore, even Hikari who tried with all her might seemed bored...

**SgtKen: **Anyways check Asuka out; she's about to kill you with eye lasers. Scary...

The young boy looked Asuka's way and saw her look away as if something rotten had just appeared in front of her.

**SgtKen:** Wow... that was cold. She totally ignored you, did something happen? Did you say something to her after she got out of the hospital?

**IShinji:** No! I mean, Misato-san kind of asked her if she wanted to move in with us permanently...

**SgtKen:** You are spending way too much time with Ayanami! I mean, I realize she's cute and all but I'm your friend, I have the right to know stuff about your life! So... What do you mean permanently?

'I have the right to know stuff about your life'? That was strange even for Kensuke... He decided to ignore Kensuke's weird babbling about Rei.

**IShinji:** Well, the way things are right now Misato-san is only our guardian for the time being. After the Angels were beaten we were supposed to return to our countries/homes. But Misato-san said she wanted us to stay with her.

**SgtKen:** As in...?

**IShinji:** As in adoption.

Shinji could hear Kensuke giggling like a little girl back there and wondered what was so funny.

**SgtKen:** So what did you say? And what did the Red Devil say?

**IShinji:** I said I was honored... It really makes me happy to know Misato-san wants to adopt me. Asuka didn't answer though, she just said she didn't have time for that, I didn't quite get the meaning behind it but Asuka has her own ways of doing stuff I suppose...

**SgtKen:** Ahahaha! Really?

**HHikari as joined the chat.**

**HHikari: **You two! School laptops are not to be used like this! Stop it or I'll tell the teacher!

Shinji nearly had an heart attack and it was pretty obvious Kensuke had the same reaction from the weird sound he made... _'How in the world did Hikari enter the chat?'_ Shinji wondered, he wasn't one to break rules, Kensuke had been the one to create it but Shinji was an accomplice and so he really felt guilty for letting himself be talked into it by Kensuke.

**IShinji: **I'm sorry Horaki-san. I'll log out now.

Shinji was about to leave the chat before it turned into a troublesome situation but Kensuke stopped him with his next message.

**SgtKen:** Hey this is a good chance Shin! Horaki-san why hasn't Asuka answered Misato-san yet?

**HHikari: **What do you mean?

**SgtKen:** What you didn't know? Misato-san asked her and Shinji if they wanted to stay with her here... As in adoption.

_'It just gets better doesn't it...?'_ Shinji always tried his best to stay away from troublesome situations the best way to deal with problems was to avoid them, and now thanks to Kensuke he had a major problem, if Asuka didn't tell Hikari about that it meant that she didn't want other people to know.

**IShinji:** What are you talking about Kensuke? I'm so sorry Horaki-san we'll log off immediately.

**HHikari: **No, that does explain why Asuka was so aloof today... Ikari-kun, what did you say to her?

Shinji couldn't believe it, Kensuke had turned Hikari into a delinquent... The young pilot of Unit 01 sighed loudly.

**IShinji:** I didn't say anything. She's like this on her own I didn't get her angry!

**HHikari: **You mean you haven't said anything to her? Ikari, no matter how you look at it this is important, Asuka was just asked if she wanted to join a family, that means deep emotional bonding... She needs to feel welcome into this new family... talk to her!

She was... right. Shinji didn't even think about that for a second but Asuka might be having a hard time after all, she was probably confused, the redhead had her pride and she seemed to hate him... Did she really want to be with them? If she didn't why didn't she just say so? Maybe Hikari was right. Although Shinji didn't like the idea of talking with Asuka at the moment he had to do it before she made her decision.

**SgtKen:** I guess class rep's right you should talk with her.

**HHikari: **Okay that's it, now off the chat you two! And I expect you to shut it down by tomorrow Aida-kun. Also today you're staying late to do chores.

**SgtKen:** Huh? Why only me? Shinji is here too!

**HHikari: **Unlike you however, Ikari-kun wouldn't do this unless he was talked into it.

**SgtKen:** Aw...

**SgtKen logged off.**

**HHikari logged off.**

**IShinji logged off.**

Once school was over Asuka vanished into thin air, Shinji would probably be happier any other day, that meant no bullying... But right now he needed to talk to her, the problem was, if Asuka didn't want to talk she wouldn't talk even if he by some miracle was capable of finding her.

"Ikari-kun." Shinji turned to see Hikari staring at him "Asuka went home... Go talk to her please."

Shinji could just nod, Hikari was obviously worried about Asuka, even if he really didn't want to, he would have to go and talk to her. Although this whole idea might actually backfire and then he would be stuck with an angry Asuka. Why was he thrown into such situations?

xxx

"So why did you call call me here Ritz?" Misato asked sitting in the scientist's chair "It's rare to hear from you, specially since we arrived at the Damoncles, you're always here... Look at the bags under your eyes, have you been sleeping at all?"

"Misato I called you because we need to talk to you." the major just looked at her friend quizzically.

"We?" just as Misato finished talking commander Fuyutsuki entered the lab joining Ritsuko "Sir!"

"Major Katsuragi, we called you here because of important matters that need to be discussed." Fuyutsuki looked at the doctor who continued "Misato, it is to my knowledge that you requested to adopt pilot Ikari."

"Yes I believe I am free to do that. Anyways could you just call him Shinji Ritz? He's not a pilot anymore." Misato stated smiling, it was actually refreshing to say that.

She was aware that Shinji hated to pilot the Evas, and now that he was free from those chains Misato hoped she could turn him into a happy young boy instead of the depression hole he used to be. However her daydream was soon crushed by the commander's next words.

"Unfortunately Ikari will have to pilot once more major Katsuragi." Misato's eyes widened at that statement, what the hell did they mean Shinji would have to pilot again? Were they insane the Angels were gone...

"What? I'm sorry but what? Commander the Angels are gone! Right Ritz?" she looked at her friend and Ritsuko just looked back at her without replying "Ritz! And if it's your plan to use the Evangelions as war weapons I won't let Shinji pilot!"

"Misato calm down!" Misato saw Ritsuko looking at her almost as if scolding her, and that didn't really calm her down, if anyone should be getting scolded it was them, forcing Shinji into battle with the Angels was a necessary evil, but like this it was just senseless "No, there are no longer Angels do fight. However there is something we have to deal with, something we didn't know before..."

"Like I said, if you want to use the Evas as war machines I am not going to allow you to use Shinji-kun as a pilot." crossing her arms over her chest the major was decided to make them understand, of course Fuyutsuki was her boss and Ritsuko was her friend but she was about to adopt Shinji, and as a responsible... Well, as a mother she was going to protect him!

"Like doctor Akagi said, calm down major." Fuyutsuki pulled two chairs and offered a seat to Ritsuko before he himself sat down "This is going to take a while to explain and I understand how you must be feeling, since you have filled for adoption you must like pilot Ikari a lot, but please hear us out until the end."

xxx

Shinji opened the door and walked inside the apartment, he wondered if it really was alright to try and talk to Asuka, after all she seemed to really hate him right now, and the redhead wasn't one to forget about it just liked that.

"Asuka... Asuka are you home?" he asked nervously hoping no one would answer, however his prayers weren't heard as a familiar voice reached his ears.

"What is it?" the voice seemed to come from her room so the pilot of Unit 01 walked slowly until he was only a few inches away from the door, but once he got close enough Asuka spoke again "Don't!"

Shinji hadn't even started to reach for the knob and Asuka had already shut him out for good, this was actually a good thing, it was a route of escape guilt free. It wasn't his fault if she didn't want to talk to him.

He was about to leave when he remembered Hikari's messages.

_No matter how you look at it this is important, Asuka was just asked if she wanted to join a family, that means deep emotional bonding... She needs to feel welcome into this new family... talk to her!_

Hikari was right, right now wasn't the time to run away, he had to talk to Asuka, even if she didn't want to talk she could listen. It wouldn't hurt to try, well it wouldn't hurt until she snapped but until then he would give his best.

_'I mustn't run away...'_ decided to talk with the redhead Shinji took another step towards the door, but decided against opening it.

Sitting down against the door Shinji pulled his knees under his chin, he could feel her warmth coming from the other side, she was sitting against the door in the same manner...

"Asuka... I w-wanted to talk about what Misato-san said yesterday..." he said trying not to sound half as nervous as he really was.

"Oh? You want to talk about the adoption thing then? Are you here to try and convince me into leaving?" Shinji felt his heart sink down, did she really think he could do something like that? Although he was already used to Asuka's attacks he couldn't help but feel bad every single time.

"No I thought that maybe I could help you with your dec-" Asuka cut him off before he could continue.

"What gives you the right to come here all high and mighty and talk to me about this? We all already know that you're the perfect invincible idiot... Don't think that just because I haven't said anything we're alright." Shinji could feel the hostile tone that her speech carried, it was hard to miss... Every single word she said was more than enough to frighten him "I don't want to talk to you."

Usually Shinji would have already give up by now, this was not where he wanted to be, it wasn't making him feel any better and it sure as hell wasn't safe, Asuka was pretty explosive... However he couldn't stop seeing that same message.

_'I mustn't run away...'_ it had been a while since had said those words in his mind, but right now he needed to make sure he wouldn't just run away.

"You d-don't need to talk... J-just listen." he said stuttering "Please..."

There was no response from Asuka's side of the door, but he could still feel her warmth which meant she was still there, so Shinji continued.

"I know it was kind of sudden, but you know how Misato-san is... But she meant what she said, she really wants you to stay with us." he looked up at the ceiling and continued "I felt really happy when she said she was going to adopt me... I never had anyone who really wanted me."

Letting some time pass to let his words sink in Shinji realized he was opening up to Asuka probably for the first time...

"And it isn't just Misato-san w-who wants you to stay... I-I kind of..." taking one deep breath Shinji continued "I also want you to stay, everyone wants you to stay... S-so please take that into consideration w-when you make your choice."

Shinji got up and decided it would be best to run for his life, if Asuka decided to hunt him down it would be best to have be far away "A-Anyways I'm going to buy ingredients for dinner..."

As Shinji left in a hurry Asuka was left alone in her room sitting against the warm door, she hugged her knees closer to her chest letting off a small smile "You really are an ultra-idiot..."

xxx

"And that's how it is."

Misato was looking at Fuyutsuki like he had just turned into a seven headed snake. It wasn't possible, if what they said was true things were far from over... There was no way...

"As you see, Ikari is necessary, without him..." Fuyutsuki pinched the bridge of his nose "You were required to know since you will be leading the operation, but do not tell anyone about this... It is very sensitive information, not even the pilots must know, let them enjoy their happiness for now."

"I... I see." resting her head on her hands Misato was sure she looked desperate, and that was probably because she was desperate... This was not fair at all.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Long time no see... I don't like to spend a lot of time without updating my stories, but I simply couldn't help but be late again.

School, lack of sleep and new awesome games got in the way this time. Although I'd like to say that I took this long because I spent my days gaming I can't... It was mostly thanks to school, and my lack of sleep was also school's fault which by the way is evil!

As you probably already noticed I like to write about school life and social interaction between our beloved Evangelion characters so you'll excuse me if I'm making a big secret out of the main plot. Of course the main plot wouldn't be without some character development so I guess we're good right?

And the small part about the door and Shinji being able of feeling Asuka... Well I'm not really familiar with Japanese doors but I assume something so thin would let the heat through...

Allow me to give my thanks once again to all of you who put up with my late updates and keep on reading my story. Thank you very much, it means a lot to me!

And now to thank my inspirational material. Thanks to the Soundtracks of Command and Conquer Red Alert 3, Digimon Adventure and SoulTaker.


	10. Balance Issues

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion.

**Chapter 10**

**Balance Issues**

The large laboratory was bathed in shadows, the only source of light was the super computer and there was only one message on the screen... "_**Error!**_"

It was incredibly painful to hear it.

Misato made it her life mission to exterminate the beings known as Angels, she was obsessed with it. So much that she was willing to send children to the battlefield so that they could kill her demons for her... _It is necessary_ and _there is_ _no other way;_ that was what she told herself so that she could sleep at night, and yes, it was necessary the world was at stake. What really scared her was that she didn't hesitate as much as she should. She knew that she was possibly going to send Shinji and Asuka to their death the next day. Misato always thought that at the end of the battle there would be a sense of accomplishment. In the end, however, she was still Misato Katsuragi, the woman who drank herself to hell and back, she was still the woman who used to drown herself in men...

Shinji was the reason she kept pushing forward, he was the reason why she fought the need to run into a bar, drink all the alcohol in the place and take some random guy home with her. In the few months that they spent together he had changed her life in a way no other human being had. That was why she didn't want to see him go, she was being selfish again, but what of it?

And now she was, dare she say it? Happy. The Angels were gone and she was working so that their little improvised family could continue to exist. Asuka was awake and despite her attitude the redhead was a part of that family, Misato knew that deep down the redhead wanted to stay too. So why? Why did she have to find out that she would have to ask Shinji to pilot... That thing again?

"Major Katsuragi," Misato stopped glaring at the error message and slowly turned to face her superior "Until then we'll still need you to perform your duties and take care of the pilots. It's actually convenient that you've filed for the adoption of pilot Ikari. Don't leave him completely in the dark but it would be best not to tell him that he might have to pilot again."

"Yes sir..." frustration washed over her like waves along with an almost uncontrollable rage, she knew that it was wrong, and she knew that Shinji would probably break again. Asuka on the other hand might be happy to pilot, but after the last battle Misato was worried about what might happen... "Are you really sure? I would rather not-"

"That is exactly why I think you shouldn't tell them everything. It might not even happen," Fuyutsuki said emphasizing the word 'everything' "It might just be a bad joke and the worst thing the children will have to worry about is their next math test or their next date."

"Yes sir." even if the commander was trying to be reassuring it was clear that there was no way it would just be a bad joke... The Evas were already on stand-by and the UN doesn't just authorize such a massive budget for their repair without some kind of evidence.

"You seem exhausted Misato, please go home and rest." Ritsuko said looking far more exhausted than the major. Misato opened her mouth to protest but nothing came out, it would be useless to argue... Misato saw the commander walk away towards the door and decided it would be best to follow him and just go home sink her sorrows in some fresh beer.

xxx

Men and women rushed pass him looking for a last minute meal. It was always busy before dinner, there were a lot of people who didn't have time to cook after work, so they dropped by the store looking for some noodles or other kinds of instant food. That was why he never really went there at that time, but at the moment he just needed a place to think. Shinji kept staring at the cereal boxes, he had been doing that for a while.

A trip to the closest grocery shop usually took less than twenty minutes, yet he had been there for nearly half an hour. There was a reason for it though, he didn't know how to face her, he had told her to stay but the truth was that he didn't have any right to ask that of her, he didn't even understand Asuka's feelings at the moment. Asuka was a strong person and she would never allow others to see her as the victim, but the truth was that she was indeed the victim, the victim to his weakness... It was his fault that she was hurt, it was thanks to him that she would never feel anything her arm again.

_'What right do I have to ask her to stay? Does she even want to stay while I'm here? I am the reason... Because of me... '_ Shinji started doubting if he did the right choice by listening to Hikari's advice, no matter how sweet the class rep was Shinji doubted she had any kind of experience with this sort of things. Who would want to live with the person that caused them so much suffering? In a way he was afraid Asuka might even try to hit him. That was another thing that was getting to him; it wasn't like Asuka to act so calm, she would kick him in the face if he even dared to look at her funny...

He sighed. '_The bear in those cereal boxes sure looks happy...'_ It was time to go home, Misato should be back soon and he needed to get dinner ready.

Shinji bought a few items he knew were starting to run short and exited the store. He started to head home but something grabbed his attention, on the other side of the street was a girl wearing a school uniform.

"Rei-chan?" no matter how many girls there were wearing school uniforms at that time he was sure only one had light blue hair. The albino seemed to have noticed him too and started walking in his direction.

"Hello, Shinji-kun." the red eyed girl greeted him with her usual tone.

"Rei-chan, hi." Shinji greeted the albino trying to sound as normal as possible hoping that she would not see how he was truly feeling. Luckily the bluenette was immersed in her own thoughts and failed to read him, unlike Shinji who could see faint signs of confusion in Rei's face. "Something the matter?"

"I need to address major Katsuragi." her response was curt and final, much like the old Rei would have answered him. But at this point Shinji felt kind of strange to receive an answer like that from the albino. He would not pry further into her busyness, after all he was already mentally drained from his one-sided conversation with Asuka and asking someone about their intimate busyness was definitely a challenge the young cello player was not about to take. His social skills were limited and he was happy with just being friends with Rei, he wasn't about to destroy what he had built with her.

"Well I already bought what I needed and Misato should be back soon," Rei looked him in the eyes finally giving him her full attention. "So why don't we go to the apartment together and wait for her?"

The albino seemed to take her time to process the suggestion and examine Shinji's face making him blush lightly at the attention he was receiving from her. Eventually Rei, satisfied with the proposal, nodded and waited patiently for Shinji to lead the way.

Shinji and Rei walked a while in silence passing several shops and people until they reached a deserted street. It was already dark and the only things providing light were a small vending machine and a street lamp that was flickering, fighting to stay lit. Then he heard the almost angelic voice of his quiet companion.

"Shinji-kun..." he stopped in front of the vending machine, and looked back at Rei. She was again looking him straight in the eyes with an unreadable expression... But what was going on the albino's head was the last thing on his, because he was in a daze as he watched Rei illuminated by the faint light provided by the vending machine. It almost looked like she was under the moonlight. Her skin was pale as snow and her eyes glowed in a beautiful red. To say she looked beautiful would be an understatement.

_'W-wait what are you thinking Shinji!'_ he thought suddenly coming out of his daze. It wasn't a crime to admire one's beauty but Shinji knew all too well that Rei was different, she might be beautiful but she was... Rei.

"Yes?" he responded curtly realizing he had been just staring at the albino for a while.

"You are acting strangely. Is my presence bothering you?" Shinji stared at her for a few more seconds and couldn't help but wonder... Was her presence bothering him? No. He was exhausted, scared to go home where Asuka was probably waiting to deck him. But he wasn't bothered by Rei's presence, if anything she was helping him, giving him support without knowing just by being there like a friend. He was still thinking about Asuka that was probably why the albino tought he was nervous.

"N-no, Rei-chan. I'm just a little tired..." Shinji looked away and tried to avoid a long and problematic conversation. He was indeed tired, if he was forced to put his frail social skills to the test again... No, right now just communicating seemed like a hard task so using 'social skills' was impossible. "Hmm... It's already getting late so let's hurry." Rei didn't seem satisfied with that so he paused and turned to face her again "It's almost dinner time and I'm cooking so... hmm s-since you're waiting why don't you stay for dinner? I-I mean... O-only if you want to of course!"

xxx

"What do you think sir?" the fake blond lit a cigarette and put it in her mouth "Misato cares a lot for Shinji. She cares for all of them, but mostly Shinji... I don't know if she will be a good soldier this time."

Fuyutsuki watched as the scientist blew a cloud of smoke and sighed. Misato was pretty outraged after she found out about SEELE and all the secrets that were kept last time, so much that her friendship with the good doctor was starting to fall apart. But he didn't need Misato to be a good soldier, he needed a pilot! And not just any pilot, he needed Ikari. Rei was capable of piloting but she never got great synchronization scores. Asuka, despite all the ruckus she made about being the best pilot, was easily surpassed. Then she crashed... And burned.

Shinji on the other hand, against all odds, became Nerv's ace pilot. It was his almost irrational chemistry with Unit 01 that allowed him to perform the impossible several times; Beating Sachiel the 3rd Angel with absolutely no training. Saving Nerv from certain annihilation at the hands of Zeruel the 14th Angel. Saving Rei from a virtually invulnerable Armisael and even more amazing, destroying the entire Eva Series preventing Third Impact in the process. Even if the others proved to be useless as long as they had Ikari there was a small glimmer of hope left for mankind.

This mission required a prepared Shinji Ikari. If Misato told him the plan all at once or if she gave him hints it was up to her, but Shinji was a fragile boy and if he was thrown into the battlefield without warning after he had been released from the chains of Eva... He would break. If she just told him everything out of nowhere he would also break, of that the commander was sure. But then, at least, he would have time to convince himself that there was no other way and hopefully he would be ready to pilot when the time came.

"We'll just have to hope that the major knows what the right choice is." he saw Ritsuko flashing worried glances at him as if he had said something out of this world.

"I think that its not th-" Ritsuko's eyes widened in shock and she dropped her cigarette.

At first the commander didn't get what had happened but after following her gaze he saw something on one of the screens of the computers that had been left on. It was small, but it was there.

"_**Success probability: 0,000000000000000000001%**_"

"Now this is... Surprising."

xxx

The redhead took her time to process the words of the idiot. There was no mistaking it, that had been a forced, yet honest, request for her to stay. Despite how much he feared her and how much guilt she brought upon him he still was dumb enough to ask her to stay. It was irrational, truly an action worthy of the idiotic Shinji. So why was she pondering it?

Was there a reason for her to stay? No matter how much she thought she couldn't come up with a reason that satisfied her. She should just say no and get on with her life away from Tokyo 3 the place where she was humiliated over and over again, the place where she was hurt more than once... The place where she met friends who despite her pride and competitive nature kept pushing to be friends with her... The place where an idiot who loved to cook and play the cello would take everything she threw at him and still tried to be her friend...

There was more bad than good when it came to her memories of Tokyo 3. But in the midst of all the pain and constant humiliation there were slight shards of light that made her think '_Should I stay?'_

That brainless idiot was really a pain. His words, if anything, should infuriate her. Wasn't he the one who hurt her pride the most? Wasn't he the reason why she 'lost' her arm? Wasn't he the person who surpassed all her years of training in a few months? She was angry at him, but for some reason she couldn't bring herself to hate him. She had tried, ever since he surpassed her she became more hostile and wanted nothing but to see him gone... Still, she couldn't say that she hated him...

Asuka sighed loudly. She should be ignoring him, she should be punching him, she should have kicked him out of her room at the hospital every time he dropped by. Instead here she was wondering what she should do because he asked her to stay.

She wasn't sure if she wanted to stay but... She wasn't sure if she wanted to leave either... _'Hikari would be making some kind of bad joke about me liking that idiot right about now...'_ Asuka glared at the invisible Hikari and looked at the clock. It was really starting to get late.

The redhead looked at the empty apartment and wondered where that stupid penguin was... That thing seemed only to show up when it wanted. As she cursed Penpen for leaving her alone the front door opened and Shinji walked in carrying a couple of bags. Asuka watched as he looked outside for a moment and then made his way inside. Confused at why he did that she decided to ignore his strange actions.

"It's about damn time you id-" as she was about to greet him in her normal fashion the redhead saw someone else entering.

"A-Asuka..." Shinji was looking at her as if trying to predict what her next move would be, but Asuka's attention wasn't on him, she was glaring at the girl standing next to the blue eyed boy.

_'What the hell is the doll doing here?'_ she growled mentally.

Wondergirl had never 'dropped by for a friendly hello' unless Misato requested her to help with mission preparations, so why the hell was she here.. With Shinji of all people?

"Good afternoon Soryu-san." Rei greeted her politely.

"Rei needed-" she saw that Shinji was about to intervene and give some excuse for Rei's presence so she stopped him. Asuka didn't want to hear what the reason was, she was just pissed that he had gone out after trying to spit out some pretty speech and now was back with the doll... For some reason she couldn't explain her blood was boiling.

"Whatever! It's not like I care!" she growled menacingly "Just get dinner done, you've wasted enough time taking night walks with Wondergirl."

"I... N-no! I got late because there was a line-" he kept trying to explain and Asuka kept getting angrier, if he didn't want to shut up she would just have to do it for him.

"I told you I didn't care didn't I?" without giving Shinji a chance to come up with more useless explanations or apologies Asuka went to the living room and switched on the TV effectively ending the conversation.

Several minutes went by and the redhead couldn't help but be curious about what Wondergirl and Shinji were doing. They went to the kitchen after Shinji mumbled a silent "I'm sorry"and hadn't left since then. Misato's apartment was small... Pathetically small. But still Asuka couldn't tell what was going on in the kitchen.

_'Stupid Japanese apartments...' _she thought annoyed herself for thinking about such a stupid thing _'I wonder what's going on in there...'_

Finally giving in to her curiosity she got up and peeked on the two social outcasts. Her eyes widened at the scene unfolding in front of her eyes.

Her body was stormed by a wave of emotions that she didn't quite understand, all she knew was that she needed to stop it... And, as if being pushed by an invisible force, the redhead dashed inside the kitchen.

xxx

Shinji was cutting the vegetables. For some reason Asuka was really angry, and he was sure it was his fault... Had his little act of bravery earlier been that bad? It wasn't like he was trying to irritate her, on the contrary he was trying to make her feel more comfortable with 'joining the family' like Hikari had told him.

Shinji slumped his shoulders and sighed _'Things might appear calm but... But the truth is that she is still angry about what happened to her because of me.'_ There was no way Asuka was just going to let something like that slip by. She might have been trying to keep it all inside because she didn't want to admit that it was because he wasn't there that she lost, but deep down he knew she hated him...

"Shinji-kun..." Rei called his name disrupting his increasingly depressive train on thought.

The bluenette had been sitting at the table quietly watching as Shinji started cutting the vegetables, so it surprised him when he turned around and found Rei standing up staring at him. "Y-yes, Rei-chan?" he replied weakly.

"May I be of assistance to you?" the albino asked looking at the knife in his hands with interest spread around her face... To others it might look like she was just staring but Shinji could see what others couldn't when it came to Rei.

"Sure. I-I mean if you want to..." he stuttered, his shy nature kicking in "But do you know how to cook, Rei-chan?"

"I do not have experience handling sharp instruments..." Rei seemed to ponder her next words carefully as she further examined the knife "And I have never tried to prepare a meal before."

"W-well it's easy..." Shinji left the knife near a cabbage and moved to let Rei have a crack at it. "You just have to- Agh!"

Tripping on his own foot almost like a bad comedy movie Shinji tried to grab something for support but ended up taking Rei down as he fell down helplessly.

Dejá vu...

Looking down at the red orbs Shinji could only think about how much the incident reminded him of when he went to deliver Rei's new Nerv card. Here he was again looking at the beautiful albino in the eyes as he held himself above her only by a few inches... He could hardly think anymore, he was so close he could feel her breath and that wasn't helping him in the least.

Rei didn't move, much like the first time she was just lying there looking at him, her cheeks slightly pink due to the proximity... _'Slightly pink?'_ he thought his head starting to go into overload. Why didn't she just push him off? Or at least told him to move? It would help a lot because the way Shinji was now his brainwaves were holding steady at 'Panic Mode' and thanks to that his body had long since stopped taking orders from his malfunctioning brain.

_'T-This isn't good!'_ he kept mentally yelling at himself to back off and apologize repeatedly to Rei but all sorts of strange things were happening at the same time with his body... His limbs seemed like they were made of rubber. His heart was beating so fast Shinji was afraid it might burst out of his chest. He could feel his face getting hotter by the second, right now he wondered how much did he resemble a tomato... And the worst part was that his face seemed to be getting closer to hers...

_'W-w-w-w-what?'_ Shinji watched as Rei slowly closed her eyes. '_If things keep going on like this...'_

Then, out of nowhere Shinji was thrown off the albino by what he could only identify as great red wind.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TO WONDERGIRL?" looking up in confusion Shinji saw what many would consider the face of death. Asuka was glaring down at him with a threatening expression, almost as if she wanted to rip his already racing heart out of his chest "YOU PERVERT!"

"I... I-I'm sorry! I didn-" there was no way he could explain how his body suddenly became deaf to his orders, and even if he could he was sure Asuka would just dust it off as the excuses of a pervert.

Surprisingly Shinji wouldn't have to explain anything.

"Soryu-san, that was a situation created by random misfortune. There was no way Shinji-kun could have prevented it." Shinji was too busy concentrating on the redhead, waiting for her to snap and hit him so he failed to catch the brief look of irritation Rei threw at the redhead. If Shinji had been paying attention he might have noticed it thanks to how easy it had gotten for him to pick up the albino's feeling, but to Asuka it just looked like Rei was looking at her with the same stoic expression as always.

Followed Rei's words there was a short moment where Shinji could swear he saw sparks jumping between the two girls.

"I'm sorry Rei-chan... I-" Shinji tried to calm things down but his attempt failed miserably as Asuka glared at him until he lost his words and Rei spoke once again fueling the redhead's anger even more.

"It is nothing you should apologize for Shinji-kun..."

"Seriously? I mean, I couldn't care less about what that pervert does with whom but you should at least show me some gratitude for saving you!" Asuka barked her face now red with anger.

"I did not need saving..." Rei replied calmly.

Shinji wondered why the redhead was so angry at Rei... Him it was natural, she seemed to be angry at him by default but Rei hadn't done anything...

"I'm home..." suddenly Misato's voice reached them and Shinji could only thank his guardian for the unintentional save.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**Come on... Admit it! You thought I was dead, right? Either that or you were probably thinking I gave up on this story. Well I'm glad to inform you that I'm alive and I don't plan to drop this or any other story! Don't know if this will make you happy or angry but oh well, guessed I should warn you all just in case. Anyways enough with... ← This.

Regarding this chapter I was planning on making it much bigger but I ended up shrinking things a little. From now on I'll be focusing on the pairing and on the main plot of course. I won't be rushing things specially when it comes to the pairing but expect to see a little more interaction.

On to real news... I am officially closing the voting poll. Let me just ask a quick question concerning this poll. Was I a fool by thinking that every character would have an even amount of votes by the end? Apparently, yes. Rei and Asuka were in the lead since week 2 or so and poor Misato and company were left hanging... The results were clear, Asuka vs Rei. I was going to chose one of the pairings on the lead, since there were only two, and with similar amount of votes no less, I voted for Rei. And so this is now officially a ShinjixRei story. So off you go people who hate ReixShinji pairings and who are mad at me... I'll make it up to you with a ShinjixAsuka story so don't be too angry.

From now on updates will be made more regularly since I already dealt with what delayed me this time, so yeah... You won't have to wait for a month.

Okay, now that I'm done with the boring stuff let's move on to the thanks.

Many thanks to those of you who reviewed and kept on waiting for me to update this! Another big thanks to the epic OST of Chaos;Head (the game).


	11. Trust

Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion.

**Chapter 11**

**Trust**

The Katsuragi/Ikari home was filled with a silence that was louder than any scream and Misato, who was suffering from a great headache, was now presented with a new mental challenge; to figure out what the hell was going on.

The lavender haired major stole a quick glance at Shinji and saw that he was looking down to his plate as if it was the most important thing in the world. Misato got the feeling he was too afraid to look up. And Asuka was silently, but surely, trying to murder both Shinji and Rei with poisonous glares.

"So..." gaining the attention of everyone Misato saw that Rei was the only one who seemed calm, not that it was surprising, the girl always seemed to have the same emotion... It freaked Misato out. Even more now that she knew the 'origin' of the albino "What brings you here Rei?"

She noticed Shinji seemed happy that he could return his attention to the plate and Asuka finally stopped glaring at everything that drew a breath.

"I wish to discuss with you, major, a letter I received this morning." It was rare to have Rei come around, let alone ask a question about something personal, maybe her feelings were finally stabilizing now that she no longer had "death" as her future life option?

"Sure...?" it was hardly audible but the albino seemed to have noticed Misato's reply.

"I received a notification stating that I was being adopted by Doctor Ritsuko Akagi..." everyone at the table seemed to be shocked and even Shinji who was still flirting with his plate spared the albino a look right before he looked away "I do not understand."

Misato was proud of being a very open minded person, but this was just something she couldn't deal with. She was well aware of the reason behind that, but she didn't wish to hurt Rei. Sure she acted kind of cold, it used to freak her out in the past, but she must have feelings, and finding out that Ritsuko only wanted to adopt her because she needed her was probably a bad experience even for someone like Rei. _'They want to have the pilots on the ready... If she was adopted by some foster family they couldn't just go get her when they needed her to pilot.'_

Nerv was gone, rules were no longer bendable like when they had the Angel excuse.

If there was some kind of legal complication back then they could just throw the all-use Angel excuse but things were returning to normal and Rei was a minor, she couldn't just live by herself now that her guardian was locked away somewhere in some super max prison.

"I... Guess she likes you?" she answered awkwardly. If her headache became any greater she would just drink some beer and go to sleep regardless of who it was that needed to talk to her, but not before writing a note not to forget to hit Ritsuko on the head next morning. If their friendship wasn't dead after the whole Nerv incident it sure as hell was now... Sure they acted friendly but both parties knew it was over.

Now the only person that wasn't looking at her was Shinji who stubbornly kept his eyes glued to the table. Rei was just staring at her and Asuka was giving her the 'really?' look.

"The doctor has always disliked me," the albino argued once she saw through Misato's lame lie "I do not believe affection to be the reason behind this sudden action."

It was painfully clear to Misato that what the girl said was true, she had noticed Ritsuko's dislike for the albino long before she had discovered the truth. "Well you are a minor, and you can't live by yourself... I'm sure she did it because of that, I doubt your lifestyle will change."

Silence ensued while Rei digested the information. During that time Misato felt her head boiling, her headache just kept getting worse.

"So, Shinji," she would grab any opportunity to try and brighten the mood and get Rei to stop asking questions she couldn't even begin to answer "Too busy admiring your cooking to partake in the conversation? It's delicious I'll give you that but you shouldn't get cocky about it."

The shy boy looked up from his plate smiling weakly. It wasn't the response she was expecting but she found it to be a surprisingly cute smile. Realizing what she had been thinking she decided to ignore it as a side effect from the growing mental assault she was suffering.

"It's edible." the grumpy looking German girl announced forcing Shinji to look back down.

It was practically considered routine to have Asuka belittle Shinji's cooking skills. As far as Asuka was concerned dinner at the Katsuragi house wasn't dinner until the she said something negative about the boy's cooking skills. Anyone that heard her would think she was simply being mean to her roommate, but Misato believed that was simply Asuka's way of complimenting Shinji.

This time, however, from what she could pick up Asuka was not 'complimenting' Shinji's culinary skills at all. Misato didn't know why, but since she got home the redhead seemed to be pissed at everyone.

"Is something the matter, Asuka?" Misato asked too tired to deal with the redhead's usual charades "You've been acting strange since I got home..." Asuka just ignored her so Misato turned to the other someone who was acting strange "I'm talking to you too, Shinji."

"N-nothing happened Misato-san... I'm just tired." the boy explained stuttering lightly.

It would be a cold day in hell if Misato couldn't tell when she was being lied to by a shy boy that couldn't lie to save his life. Although it wasn't anything particularly new, Shinji often lied about how he felt he often mumbled something like "I'm alright." and then he would put those damned phones on his ears. The major had come to hate small music playing devices since she met her ward. Shinji often went to a world of his own when he started to listen to his SDAT player and it was an impossible mission to get through to him once he entered that little world of his.

Sighing mournfully the major finally gave up on trying to figure things out. Teen problems could wait, at the moment she needed to deal with a much bigger problem... She needed to figure out how she would tell Shinji that he would have to do something he truly loathed again, that he would have to pilot Unit 01 once more in order to keep mankind safe.

Misato hadn't figured that one out yet. The one thing she was sure of was that the boy was in no condition to get those kind of news at the moment. It would hurt him, no matter when she told him, but she could at least minimize the hit by trying to find the perfect time... If there was such a thing.

"Major, I have been told that you are attempting to adopt Shinji-kun," Rei, who had been quiet for a while spoke up grabbing her attention.

"Yes well, Shin-chan is like a son to me, so I decided I wanted him to stay." she said with a bright smile adorning her face making the shy boy blush. She was not the perfect maternal figure, far from it! But she loved that boy more than she would ever love herself, and he returned the affection ten times over by just being there, always trying to help her out, treating her with care...

"Then I propose you consider adopting me as well." the red eyed albino declared making everyone react in shock. Shinji's eyed widened as he carefully examined the girl while Asuka jumped out of her chair and looked with disbelief at Rei while asking what the hell the albino was talking about.

As for Misato, her reaction was simply to stare at the bluenette. She would have jumped, yelled... Or some other thing, but she was too tired and her headache was making it hard for her to do sudden movements "I'm sorry Rei, but I don't think I can just do that. Besides this apartment is already too small for us three." Misato explained pointing at Shinji and Asuka.

"Damn straight!" Asuka yelled approving of Misato's answer "Go find a family somewhere else, we don't need a doll here!"

Misato was very shocked when she found out how Rei came to be. Even after getting past the initial shock the major still felt a little apprehensive around the girl. But she knew that Rei was nothing more than an innocent child brought to the world for the sake of a madman's ambitions. The child was denied love and affection, she was forced to know nothing more than loneliness and darkness and because of that her personality became easy to manipulate and submissive. All so that Rei would obey the commander's every order, all so that she could grant him his wish by trading her life for his wife's...

It pained her to deny the albino's wish for a family, if that was what the girl was asking for... But she never meant it the same way Asuka put it. Her head kept pounding and now she was in a foul mood to top it off.

"I am not a doll," the quiet albino said calmly "I would like you to stop addressing me that way, Second."

"Oho! Where's the polite Wondergirl? I thought it was 'Soryu-san' now." the redhead laughed proudly, she had managed to get on Rei's nerves and she knew it.

Shinji who had been shrinking in his seat hoping the storm would pass by without hitting him got up.

"Asuka... Please stop..." his words seemed to hit Asuka pretty hard, the redhead couldn't even spit one of her comebacks at the boy. His voice, however, did not carry any hostility, nothing that would make someone like Asuka shut up. Actually it was so calm that Misato wasn't sure if that had been her Shinji-kun speaking.

Not waiting for an answer Shinji retreated to his room mumbling something about being excused from the table.

_'What the hell just happened?'_ she asked herself still staring at where Shinji had been sitting seconds ago. Shinji like herself carried the burden of knowing the truth about Rei, but it was still shocking to see the shy boy putting himself in a line of fire that had nothing to do with him.

"I understand. Perhaps you find me a different guardian, major?" Rei said calmly "I do not care for the doctor's opinion of myself but it is unpleasant still."

xxx

Shinji hadn't come out of his room for the rest of the evening. Rei left shortly after being told that there was nothing Misato could do, as for Misato she just went to her room complaining about having one hell of a headache. Next morning Asuka didn't even get to see Shinji, apparently he had left earlier than usual leaving Asuka to have dinner with a half asleep Misato.

"Just who the hell does he think he is!" Asuka sat on the school roof with her best friend.

During class he didn't spare her one single glance, he kept his eyes on the teacher the whole time looking interested in whatever the old fossil was talking about.

"Asuka that was pretty mean of you..." Hikari who had listened to her ranting like always pointed out while she opened her bento box.

"A little support would be nice," she said with a frown "Besides, he had no damn moral! He was all sweet talking earlier asking me to stay and then he acts all superior when I tell the truth to his bestest of friends! I should just leave if this is the kind of treatment that I get here." Asuka finished, stressing the word 'truth'.

Hikari looked at her lunch and the back at Asuka apparently trying to figure out if she would get to eat. Eventually she put her lunch down and Asuka smiled at her friend.

"He told you he wanted you to stay?" Hikari asked slightly surprised and received a nod from her "Asuka, that seems like something very bold for someone like him... It seems to me that he really means it."

"But-" she tried to argue but the class rep didn't give her a chance.

"And no matter how you look at it you were being rude..." this earned the class rep a dirty look from her "You shouldn't take it personally. Besides, if you're not careful, if you leave, Ayanami is going to steal him away you know?"

She could feel her cheeks burn and she didn't know why. Was it because it made her remember that incident the night before where those two were seconds away from...? Or was it because she was simply pissed off at her friend for suggesting she cared about something like that?

"W-what the hell does that have to do with anything!" Asuka yelled at the top of her lungs "I could not care less for him!"

"I get it... Sorry." Hikari answered meekly "Just stop shouting."

Hikari was a great friend but sometimes she could say the dumbest of things. The girl never saw the pervert's true self, she always defended him saying how great he seemed to be... Frankly it annoyed Asuka to no end.

Hikari sighed in defeat and started eating her lunch. Leaving Asuka to think about how things were now. She still didn't know if she wanted to stay, but it was true that if she left the idiot would probably end up dead from making too many chores for their lazy guardian... So in a sense it wasn't like she wanted to stay because of him or anything. If she left she would be sentencing him to a life of misery, that and Misato would probably drink herself to death without her.

Nodding to her own logical conclusion Asuka was satisfied with that explanation.

"Asuka, what happened!" she looked at her friend and saw her looking down, following her gaze she looked at her right hand, the wound she accidentally inflicted on herself was still there.

"It's nothing, it doesn't hurt at all." she explained.

It was incredibly hard to get used to her situation. That arm was there but she couldn't feel it so to her it was like it was gone. Only when she looked at it could she verify that it was indeed still there... If there was any good out of this situation it was that she couldn't feel pain.

"I know it doesn't hurt you, but those look like scratching marks..." the class rep looked at her worriedly "What happened..."

"Nothing happened I'm just adjusting." she lied.

Sure she was adjusting, but Asuka doubted she would ever get used to it... Constant pain was something that people could get used to with time but it's hard to get used to something that your own brain doesn't even acknowledge as real.

Asuka saw the brunette looking at her with worried eyes but eventually she sighed in defeat and so she returned to her musings.

xxx

"Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to present to you the new and improved Evangelion Unit Zero One." a short fat man with black hair wearing a blueish jumpsuit announced "The EESS is in place and all of the armor was improved with the experimental KP002. We also installed the R440 systems in the new entry plugs."

"Okay, now in Japanese!" Misato complained loudly.

"Ma'am?" the small man looked surprised for a few seconds and after he received a small nod from the blond scientist he nodded "KP002 is a thick layer of... let us call it anti-particle beam material. It was designed to withstand a blast equal or superior to that of the Angel of Might."

She whistled at the purple behemoth. If it was already a fearsome weapon of mass destruction before, now it was just over-kill... If they were fighting humans that is.

"Of course it's still experimental, we could only simulate the Angel's power it was impossible for us to replicate it." he admitted to the major "But we assume the KP002 can withstand at least 2 blasts."

"Get on with it Larry." Ritsuko said looking bored at the American engineer.

"Yes ma'am." he replied tiredly "The R440 is a storing/cooling device for the LCL. During battles such as the one against Ramiel or Leliel we have seen that the LCL is as deadly as any attack." Larry stated while he turned to look at the purple beast "Ramiel superheated the fluid inside the entry plug effectively wounding the pilot's lungs and flesh. As for Leliel it held the pilot hostage for a long period of time which resulted in the near death of said pilot. With the R440 active Unit Zero One can cool down superheated fluid and replace it once it expires."

_'So pilot survival is being taken seriously this time it seems...'_ Misato thought wondering why none of this was installed after those Angels attacked "Won't that be useless when the five minutes of internal battery reach their limit?"

"No ma'am, the new entry plugs are equipped with their own energy system that only kicks in when the LCL reaches critical levels" Larry scratched his head and turned to face them "The EESS is out of my area of expertise... Only the good doctor there knows what it actually is."

"Well there is no need to mention it yet Larry," Ritsuko said looking at the commander who nodded in approval "Unit 02 went through similar modifications, but the most prominent change was the right arm that had it's bone structure replaced with mechanical parts so that it can still operate remotely."

"I thought it was originally going to be removed... Won't something like that be a draw-back for the pilot?" Fuyutsuki asked the bottle blond.

"I think seeing the arm operate without your orders can be distracting but we'll have to test it out first." the doctor looked at the floor and then back at the commander "It was either that or the complete loss of the right arm, I think it would be best to consider every option before we leave Unit 02 with a handicap... Recruiting a new pilot doesn't seem viable either."

Fuyutsuki seemed to consider the idea and nodded.

Shortly after Ritsuko went over some technical issues with the small engineer the commander dismissed everyone present and both him and the blond disappeared into the crowd leaving Misato to wander.

In the end she hadn't said a word to Shinji and the fact that the boy looked nervous the previous night didn't help her much. Things were starting to seem like before...

"Ah Major..." she heard a voice in the middle of the crowd calling for her and she recognized it immediately as Maya's.

Maya fought to get past the busy staff of Damoncles and reached Misato.

"Good morning Maya-chan..." she greeted tiredly.

"Something happened major?" the cute techie asked as she signaled Misato to follow her "I'm sorry, I need to drop these off at the science department." she pointed at the documents she was carrying.

Misato shrugged and started to follow the younger girl. It wasn't like she had something better to do, the last member of SEELE was still in hiding and Fuyutsuki still hadn't started to interrogate the other ones.

"Nah, it's just..." she tried to come up with a way of telling the girl what was on her mind without having to give her confidential information "I have to ask something of Shinji but I know he really hates doing it. So I'm scared of what might happen."

The techie raised an eyebrow "Something he hates doing? Like what major? Doing chores...?"

Misato chuckled lightly. The situation was not one to make jokes but it was nice to hear the innocent girl goofing around.

"No it's something more serious... Lets just say it's personal." Misato paused trying to explain just how serious it was. After a few seconds of silence however, she gave up on it "Very, very personal."

Maya seemed deep in thought for some time and Misato just continued to follow her like a robot. She had lost awareness of her surroundings and came to a stop when she bumped into something hard.

"Damn it who the-" the rough voice of captain Garson reached her "Wow, I did not expect to have an angel drop in my arms major." the hostility was gone from his voice and he was looking down at her with a soft expression.

"Captain please watch where you are going..." Misato growled, usually she could get along with most people, no matter how obnoxious, but Rodney was a different case. The man reminded her too much of Kaji, not physically but still... She couldn't stand his presence "And let me point out that **Angel** is the last thing anyone who has seen one wants to be called."

"Aye aye!" he said in a mock salute "Well, since we're like this, why don't I pay you breakfast major? I believe I have never seen you eat here..."

"That's because I have someone who is sweet enough to prepare me breakfast." the captain's smile faltered and Misato could only grin at the man while Maya watched fascinated by their interaction "Oh yes! He is such a sweetheart! So I'll have to pass, captain." Misato grabbed Maya's hand and pulled her down the hallway leaving the stunned captain standing there.

"He?" the man mumbled quietly making the lavender haired woman laugh.

"Wow that was kind of mean, major..." Maya said failing to hold back the smile that was plastered all over her face.

"The good captain had it coming!" she said trying to look like a victim "Besides I didn't lie, Shin-chan really is a sweetheart."

"True." Maya said flatly.

That should at the very least keep the captain off her case for a while. If he kept harassing her Misato swore she would punch him in the face, she had enough problems already and she did not need Kaji 2.0 all over her. After all she decided to focus completely on being a mother, for his sake... For Shinji's sake.

"About what you were saying before major," Maya began "I believe you should speak with him and listen to what he has to say about it... I don't really know what we're discussing here but I think you should just be direct about it with Shinji-kun."

"I see, so you're suggesting I just get out with it and hope for the best?" Misato asked and received a nod from her friend "Well, I guess you're right... That is best isn't it?"

Maya was right! Screw the commander, screw Ritsuko and their plans. She would just tell Shinji what was going on and the hell with the world! He would probably be pissed, no he would hate her with all his heart but at least Misato could say she did not deceive the boy.

"Thanks Maya, I think you helped a lot," Misato said with a smile.

"Hmm thanks but I don' know if I'm right, major-" she started but was cut off by Misato.

"It's Misato... Get it right for once!" she said as she turned around "Now I have another thing to deal with."

xxx

Things were not looking good. Why the hell did it have to turn out like this? Asuka was glaring at him while Rei kept trying to meet his eyes. At least that was what Kensuke was telling him through the 'illegal chat room'. He didn't dare look to his left or right.

**SgtKen:** Rei's looking at you again. Oh wait! Asuka saw her looking and now we have sparks jumping around. Mostly Asuka but I think Rei also looks a tad irritated.

**IShinji:** Thanks for the heads up.

**SgtKen:** Please, I am not that nice Shin-man. What happened?

**IShinji:** I kind of told Asuka to shut up yesterday when she was insulting Rei...

**SgtKen:** It was a pleasure meeting you man. She's going to tear you a new one.

Shinji sighed mournfully and looked back at the blackboard trying to look interested in whatever the teacher was on about.

During lunch she avoided both Rei and Asuka by leaving in a hurry with Kensuke. But there was no running away during class so he just tried his best to keep his eyes as far away from them as possible.

He had been right, Asuka went too far and what he did was what anyone would have done. But he couldn't just go and tell her that for two simple reasons; first, it was Asuka... And secondly he did not have the guts to do it. If possible he would just like to apologize and go on with his life but Asuka didn't seem like she was going to let it slide that easily.

_'Maybe she finally started blaming me for what happened and now she's finally going to take revenge...'_ It was certainly possible. Since the redhead woke up all she did was scream at him for a while, there was no retaliation, sure she didn't want to be seen as the victim that needed him to save her but some part of her must hate him, some part of her must want to beat him to a bloody pulp for his weakness... His failure.

**SgtKen:** Seems like Asuka's not only pissed at you but at Rei too... And why are you avoiding Rei too I thought if anything she should be grateful to you.

Ah yes, Rei... That was another problem, a major problem he had to deal with. There was no denying it, last night if Asuka hadn't gotten in the way he would have kissed the pale girl. He could still remember how close their lips were, he could practically feel her breath...

She showed no hostility towards him. Far from it she actually defended him. He wasn't about to delude himself by saying the girl wanted him to kiss her, she was simply pointing out the obvious; it was an accident. He would be lying if he said he did not wish for that kiss to happen and that was the big problem.

He was so embarrassed he couldn't look at her. He was willing to ignore all he knew about the albino and just kiss her... It had started wonderfully, he finally established a connection with her, he became the friend she never had, he was so happy that he could bring joy, even if it was minimal, to the blue haired beauty.

What a pitiful man he was. Even with what he knew he still wished he could have kissed Rei.

**SgtKen:** Hey, are you still with me?

**IShinji:** Yeah, I'm just trying to avoid eye contact with Rei so that Asuka won't kill me.

Kensuke seemed satisfied with that lie and dropped the subject.

**SgtKen:** Anyways, I'm just going to have fun with my friend in his last moments of life!

**IShinji:** Gee thanks...

It was nice to know that at least Kensuke was capable of cheering him up, even if it was with lame jokes.

xxx

"Misato, how can I help you?" Ritsuko asked lifting her gaze from the papers she was reading, her face becoming illuminated by the faint glow of the computer screen.

"Guess who dropped by my apartment last night." Misato said frowning at the lack of light in the damned lab.

When Ritsuko looked at her with a questioning look Misato just felt like slapping the blond across the face. That wouldn't help much, but at least she would vent some of the frustration that she had pent up.

"I don't have time for games Misato," Ritsuko said flatly "I'm busy with the Evas, so please just tell me what you need."

That did it. Misato slammed her hands against the doctor's desk making the blond jump back in surprise.

"Sorry what was that?" her words were drenched in anger "I thought you said something along the lines of 'Oh, maybe Rei Ayanami dropped by because I decided to adopt her so that I can use her as a pilot again.'."

The surprise was replace by understanding and then anger. And the lilac haired woman watched as Ritsuko got up and lit a cigarette and produced a cloud of smoke "It's necessary, you should understand it, besides Rei doesn't care about anything. It's the same as what you are doing with Shinji. Frankly I'm annoyed that Rei went arou-"

Before she understood what happened her hand was stinging with the pain.

"Don't You Dare Ritsuko! Or I Swear To God A Small Slap Will Be The Least Of Your Concerns! " Misato growled while Ritsuko was hunched over grabbing her cheek and looking at her with disbelief "I did not have the idea of adopting Shinji just because I needed him to pilot that god damn monster! And Rei, even if you think you understand her you're wrong! She isn't just some machine you built and know all her functions, she's a human being with feelings... And guess what! She doesn't want to be adopted by someone like you."

"Say what you wish, Misato," Ritsuko said her voice trembling "But I know that you just want to adopt that boy for your own selfish reasons! You should be thanking me! It's because of me that an abomination like Rei Ayanami is allowed to draw breath."

This time Misato was capable of stopping herself from hitting the scientist.

"I don't know why you're obsessing over that boy," Ritsuko said with a glare "It's not like you to get attached to your weapons. He's a pilot, a weapon of great value, that's all."

"He is not a weapon." she declared starting to get the urge to hit Ritsuko "He is-"

"If I didn't know you better I would say you were protecting your boyfriend." at this Misato's eyes widened

_'What the hell are you suggesting Rits!'_ she thought.

"You more than anyone are determined to the cause of saving mankind and slaughtering all Angels. Even to the point of sending children into their death." Ritsuko said loudly "I've done things I'm sure would make any other person have nightmares every night for the rest of their lives. But I did it because I believe it will help us survive this hell. If you're not willing to sacrifice him because you see him as something other than a weapon what are you doing here?"

It was true, Misato had no trouble sending the boy to his death several times. And every time there was only one thing in her mind. Vengeance.

But now was different, he was her Shinji-kun not just that depressed kid who can pilot the purple behemoth.

"There's nothing more to discuss. Rei Ayanami will be adopted by me and she will serve her purpose of fighting the Angels... Misato, please understand. If it makes you feel any better I won't interfere with her life." the blond's words shifted from cold to apologetic.

Misato didn't have it in her to continue the fight but she still didn't just want to say that it was alright be cause it was not alright. If Ritsuko was asking for forgiveness she was asking the wrong person. Turning on her heel Misato headed for the exit.

xxx

Rei watched as Aida just grabbed Shinji and both boys disappeared. She was disappointed, she wished to have a words with Shinji. Luck, however, did not smile at her. During school Shinji had been distracted with class and Aida had kidnapped him during lunch, much like he did just a few moments ago. That alone was o make matters worse Asuka had been trying to initiate a conflict with her.

She had been displeased with the redhead's actions as of late. Asuka had become more hostile towards her and had come to interfere in... Personal matters.

Her heart still pounded uncontrollably in her chest when she remembered how close she had been with Shinji. It was like her entire body went up in flames. It was a moment she would never forget. Although something similar had happened a few months back for some reason this time was different.

Yet as fast as it started it came to an unfortunate conclusion due to the interference of the redhead. She wondered what it meant. The feeling inside her chest...

_'Shinji-kun...'_

xxx

Shinji spent his afternoon with Kensuke, and during that time he realized just how much of an otaku his friend was. It wasn't a surprise he knew Kensuke to be completely obsessed with the military, but his room seriously needed some remodeling.

Tired from playing the Destruction of Heaven, a game Kensuke had bought and beating himself mentally, Shinji finally found it in him to go home and meet the redhead. Lately his so-called home didn't feel like home at all... All he did was try to avoid it because of Asuka.

With a loud sigh he entered and announced his untimely demise "I'm home..."

"Hey moron... I was starting to think there would be no dinner tonight." Asuka greeted him nonchalantly.

_'Wait, what?'_ did something hit the redhead over the head?

"Sorry..." he answered weakly "I'll get to it."

Asuka turned on the TV and for a few minutes there was peace, something he didn't think he would have in a while. Thankful for his blessings the boy decided to make something extra nice. But as soon as he started cooking the redhead scared him half to death.

"Oh. My. God!" Asuka yelled at the top of her lungs "Come see this... It's awesome!"

Shinji wondered what made the redhead so excited and made his way to see what was on TV. As soon as he saw the title on the News Report Shinji's heart fell and his eyes widened in shock... Was he hallucinating? Or was it just his eyes that were malfunctioning?

"Turn the volume up!" Asuka demanded.

Shinji found the controller and turned the volume almost to the max.

"... Are you sure of this?" one of the reporters asked his fellow journalist.

"Yes, we have a safe source," the other man said "Since that pesky little Nerv is gone it has become easier for the media to make research and report again."

"But we were officially informed by the United Nations. They stated the Angel threat is gone and that finally life in Japan could return to normal thanks to, in no small part, to the sacrifices of the pilots and several of Nerv's employees."

"Apparently, a new threat was detected, or so my source told me, it is impossible, even for a person like him, to have specifics about confidential information." the man said with a large grin "But of one thing you can be sure. The Angel threat isn't over, and the Evangelions will be deployed again! So run from Tokyo 3 while you still can, things are about to become hot again!"

The man talked like he was making an advertisement for a new product and it was working, even Asuka was clinging to the man's words. Sure not everyone was reacting the same way, he was sure that most families were cursing themselves for returning to Tokyo 3.

"That sounds like a very serious statement," the first reporter said skeptically "Do you happen to have any proof to support this claim?"

"Indeed I do," the man answered flushing Shinji's hopes that the man was just a loony "Here are several documents that prove that they are repairing the Evas, not only that but they have been importing spare parts that were in storage in Russia. Everything was sent to one of the United Nations' fortress called Damoncles. And! To top it all off guess who was transferred from Nerv there?"

"I'll bite, who?" the first reporter said laughing.

"Everyone." the man answered flatly "Not to mention the new commander of Damoncles is the old Vice-Commander of Nerv, Fuyutsuki Kozo. I can go on all day... Documents approving projects involving the Evas, papers that-"

Asuka turned the TV off and looked at Shinji with a big smile.

"Did you hear that?" she said almost shaking with excitement "We get to pilot again!"

He didn't listen to a word of what the German girl said. He would have to pilot again? Why? Wasn't the threat over? His life was finally returning to normal and now out of nowhere some greedy reporter with a bad hairdo came along telling everyone how the Evangelions were going to be deployed.

_'But... Maybe they have new pilots! Yeah. They would have contacted us...'_ he thought hoping he was right.

Besides Misato told him, she hugged him and told him! She wanted to have him here not because she needed him but because she wanted to. But if this was true did it mean that he had been used... Again? Had Misato tricked him? Was he led to believe he was truly wanted when Misato only wanted to use him again to pursue her vengeance?

_'Was this all a lie...? What should I believe in?'_ he thought desperately while Asuka was nearly jumping in the couch. He always had problems trusting people and it was hard for him to completely trust someone and now he was just told that one of the persons he trusted the most could have been lying.

As he desperately tried to find an answer the door to the apartment opened and the familiar voice of his guardian hit him like a rock "I'm home." it pained him to even listen to her voice, because after all, it could be the sweet voice that had been showering him in lies during all this time...

xxx

"What is the meaning of this!" Fuyutsuki asked looking at his TV with a scowl.

Ritsuko was still feeling like crap from her fight with her best friend and now to top it all off Damoncles had a leak that just exposed their plans to the world. They had already received several death threats from people who thought Nerv was gone after the incident in the Geo Front. The highways were suddenly filled with cars rushing to get out of town...

It was just like the commander had anticipated... Chaos.

"I don't know who the leak is but he had a point... Without Nerv's status and several Sections it's easier for reporters to dig around."

"I know that! I asked the UN to give us the same power we had back at Nerv but they refused to 'commit the same mistake twice' so they only gave us the necessary." Fuyutsuki said pinching the bridge of his nose "I guess if the major didn't tell the children now they know..."

"It might make it easier this way, sir." Ritsuko suggested "I mean, Asuka will probably volunteer to pilot, Ayanami should follow orders at will the only problem would be-"

"Our ace... The pilot with the most success rate..." he said darkly "Shinji Ikari. How wonderful our only problem is that we aren't sure our ace will pilot."

Ritsuko respected the man in front of her and she knew he was simply irritated by what happened but the fact that he was being sarcastic did not help her keep her calm at all.

"With all due respect sir, calm down." she said trying to figure out what the next step would be "We should try to get this under control with a press conference, sir."

"Yes," the older man agreed "Arrange one for tomorrow morning."

xxx

Misato arrived at her home and the first thing she noticed was that something was off. Asuka was practically beaming at her while Shinji didn't even acknowledge her existence.

"What's the matter?" she asked in a cheery voice "Something good happened Asuka?"

The German looked at her with a smile and nodded.

"Why didn't you say something Misato?" she looked at the redhead and then at Shinji "Why didn't you say you needed us to pilot again?"

It was liked being hit in the face at point-blank with a canon. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped while the weight of the world fell on her shoulders. How did she know? Had Ritsuko said something? What the hell was going on? And Shinji... Misato's eyes wandered and landed on the boy who was stared darkly at her "Yes, why didn't you... Misato-san?"

* * *

**Author's Notes:** New chapter! And new events! Finally I'm going to introduce the main plot. So Shinji now feels betrayed and we all know that he has trust issues... I wonder how this will turn out... Hmm...

Now some Q&A because some nice people left me reviews and sent me messages explaining how I could improve:

Iraesmarter: Here it's moving forward my friend. Next chap you should have some details about said new threat so do not despair! And we can't have Shinji go too much out of character so just giving the finger to Misato is kind of impossible.

Volg: Yes I realize you have a sniper pointed at my head and that I will pay hell if the story isn't good enough to compensate for my 'poor choice' of the pairing. Next time put someone on the really lead with more than 2 votes so I won't have to chose... Also, you rock!

Nothing much happening here ← So... Thank you for the reviews.

A big thanks to the OST of Code Geass for the massive inspiration fuel it was.


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